The Hearst people recently updated the program's Web site with the deadlines and rules for this academic year. For the first time, the competition includes a category for multimedia. The rules for that category mention editing as a consideration. Yet, the overall competition has no categories specific to editing. Why not a headline-writing contest?
UPDATE: I asked Richard Cole, a former dean of the UNC-Chapel Hill journalism school who has served as chairman of the Hearst steering committee, about the lack of a headline category. Here's his reply:
That has been talked about in the past, but the thinking was that headlines alone weren't appropriate for a separate category. And the Hearst folks aren't much interested in adding another j-writing category.
Copy editors get dissed again...