Summer Critique FAQs and Deadline Extended!

PSPA wants to see as many Pennsylvania student publications participate in summer critiques as possible! We're extending the 2019 critique deadline through July 31 for newspapers, online news, literary magazines, and broadcast. (We're already at capacity for spring delivery yearbooks.)

Submit your publications for critique today!

A few points to know about critiques:

• We've got amazing judges. All of our judges have both professional industry and scholastic journalism experience. They are committed to offering descriptive feedback in all evaluations. (We do our critiques in the summer months because our judges are generally a little less busy— because they have a lot to write and share!) Expect to learn a lot!
• Paid membership includes one publication critique for each school. Get your money's worth on the annual membership fee—you've got nothing to lose. PSPA is happy to complete additional publication critiques for the other publications at your school for $50 each.
• Your publication is only competing against itself in the critique process. Judges score each publication individually and not by comparison to other publications. Critique results are sent only to advisers—not to school administration or students. You determine the best ways to share feedback that will help your publication to grow.
  
• Summer logistics got you down? We know it can be tough to secure check requests or credit card payment from school business offices during the summer. Register for membership and submit your publications for critique even if payment won't come through until school starts up again. We won't release critique results until membership / critique fees are paid, but we don't want to wait to start the process!
• We introduced online news publications as a category in 2018 because so many of our Pennsylvania schools have online news sites. Help us to grow this category by sharing your publication for review!
  
• Critiques are not a fundraiser for PSPA. We pay our judges, we handle mailings, and we handle all the turnaround on getting the feedback to you. We're an all-volunteer organization, so we keep this cost as low as possible--much lower than what we've researched for some other state and national organizations. 
• First-year membership is free this year and does not include a critique, but first-year members are welcome to submit publications for critique at $50 each. 
• Top-ranked publications WILL compete! All publications earning GOLD recognition will be sent on to a new judge where your publication will compete against other GOLD publications to determine who wins the annual All-State Keystone Award in each category. ​See our 2018 Keystone winners.
  

Any questions? Please reach out and let us know!
We look forward to seeing the rest of our categories fill up for summer 2019...

Broadcast Critique Entry Form
Literary Magazine Critique Entry Form
Newspaper Critique Entry Form
Online Publication Entry Form