Never mind the latest "You're a Winner" notice from the Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes. Editors at newspapers around the country are checking their mailboxes this week for something much more valuable.
Press credentials to cover the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City are being awarded this week by the U.S. Olympic Committee for 570 lucky print reporters and photographers nationwide. About 350 will get the news that they're not going to have media access to the Games.
Another 90 Utah print reporters and photographers are being credentialed by the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, which is handling requests from the local media. Broadcasters in and out of Utah won't be notified until later this year.
The list of the newspapers, magazines and press agencies getting credentials is expected to be released later this week, after the USOC has had a chance to notify all the applicants.
Besides the New York Times and other nationally known publications, staffers at a number of regional newspapers in places like Twin Falls, Idaho, and Casper, Wyo., made the cut.
USOC spokesman Mike Moran said that thanks to a record allocation from the International Olympic Committee, only a few news organizations that applied for credentials are going away empty-handed.
The 570 U.S. media credentials awarded for Salt Lake City compares to 427 for the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan; 370 for the 1994 Games in Lillehammer, Norway; 350 for the 1992 Games in Albertville, France; and 406 for the 1988 Games in Calgary.
A credential serves as a free pass during the Games into virtually every Olympic event as well as noncompetition sites like the massive press center that will be set up inside the Salt Palace.
Without a credential, members of the media can't get into press conferences with Olympic officials and athletes, or access to the reams of information compiled by organizers. They also have to stand in line and pay for tickets to events they want to cover.
E-MAIL: lisa@desnews.com