Mike Humphries-The first-place entry, "When the Saints Go Marching In," tells about a Mardi Gras party provided as a gift to the residents of a nursing home by one of their fellow residents, herself a Katrina evacuee. The editor used natural sound of music and good shot selection to effectively tell the story.

"Water Skipping," a story about people who run snowmobiles on top of small bodies of water, moved along at a healthy pace, thanks to the editor's use of quick cuts and natural sound. Selective use of sped-up video also helped to visually punctuate the story.

Overall, this category was fairly weak. The majority of the stories were edited in a pretty average way. Not to say that they were all bad, by any stretch. Just that they don't represent what should be considered the "best" of television editing.  Some had good potential but overused natural sound or effects diluted the effectiveness of the stories. By comparison, many of the stories put together in the "under 1 hour" rule of the Deadline Editing category were much better crafted than these, which had a time limit 23 hours longer.

Stephanie Ottjepka-"When the Saints Go Marching In" has nice motion in the edits. The edits fit well with the script, the duration of the shots held a rhythm, and the action within the shots flowed nicely. I liked the edit of Rita laughing  when the lady says, "Look at Rita -- ain't she cute?" This story had a pleasant style, worked with the script, and was better than the daily general news story.

"Water Skipping" had some interesting use of effects, nat sound transitions and fit the script. The fast motion shot used under the track "5 people on the snow mobile" was different. This piece shows originality that we didn't find distracting.

This is the best of photojournalism for the whole year. These stories should represent the standard that we strive for. The rest of the entries have been what I see on a regular basis. I would not share them with my co-workers as examples of the best general news stories I've seen this year.

I know there is better work out there. I hope that for the longevity of the category, more editors enter next year.