The Pressroom
Welcome to the Great Bridge Links Pressroom. This page is intended to be a resource for bridge writers, editors, journalists, publishers and illustrators.
BAMSA is an academic, research-led project that explores the social world of bridge and the benefits of mindsport. You’ll find all sorts of studies and information about playing bridge on their website.
International Bridge Press Association (IBPA)
Website:: www.ibpa.com
The International Bridge Press Association is an organization of journalists who write about bridge. At all major championships, IBPA allows access to well equipped press rooms that receive all results as soon as matches are completed. The IBPA publishes a monthly journal with reports and deals that may be used by members for their own columns.The organization also publishes a membership list of bridge journalists worldwide. There are awards for reporting what are adjudged to be the best in card play, bidding, defense as well as an award for the best bridge book of the year. Members of the IBPA receive the Bulletin monthly.
RESOURCES FOR WRITERS
Bridge Composer – The ultimate bridge software tool for bridge players and bridge professionals A Windows application designed to meet the specific needs of bridge players, bridge teachers, bridge game directors, and bridge publishers
Bridge Hand Player – Enter the hands. It will generate a text string that you can copy and paste into the article.
Diagram Wizard – creates attractive bridge diagrams.
Bridge Writing Style Guide – by Richard Pavlicek
BRIDGE BLOGS
A popular form of bridge journalism used to be the ‘blog’ (short for web log). Blogs are free and provide bridge writers and players an excellent opportunity to post their thoughts and experiences. In the years between 2000 – 2007 there were many bridge blogs. However today most are gone. Or still in place but have not been added to in a decade.
The biggest reason for this change has been the advent of large platforms where bridge journalists can post their writing and know they’ll have a readership. These include BridgeWinners and BridgeBlogging among others.
Bridge Blogging – www.bridgeblogging.com – A blog site about bridge, featuring bloggers such as Bobby Wolff, Mark Horton, Ray and Linda Lee, Roy Hughes and Barbara Seagram. This is one of the world’s biggest bridge blogging sites and well worth a bookmark.
BridgeWinners – Created and managed by Gavin Wolpert and Jason Feldman, among otheres, it promises to “connect bridge players from around the world through our social network and provides a venue to learn, share, and talk about the game we love.”
Ray’s Bridge Blog – Ray Adams shares 4 decades of bridge journalism on his blog. Last update September 2018.
Eamons Ireland Bridge Stuff – General Bridge News from Ireland and Online. Last update September 2018.
The Beer Card. Created by Paul, located at Scottish Borders, in August 2006. According to Paul, this is my blog about bridge in the real and on-line world. Last update August 17, 2018.
Daniel Skipper Blog – Toybridge. Last entry, November 2012.
Andre’s Bridge Blog – I’ve only been keeping the blog for about 3 months and it is really just my thoughts and experiences as a bridge teacher in a small town in Georgia and one of the top players in Georgia. Current.
Vikings in Space (English) Last entry July 2018.
Ramesh abhiraman Covers interesting tournament hands, play, defense, bidding. Last entry August 2017.
Jennifer Jones Bridge Blog. Greetings from Northern California. My blog, Jennbridge, is now a year old and has over 100 entries. The hands are mainly aimed at the advancing player, but there are many examples of expert play, bidding and defense. It is mostly written by me, but my expert friends submit hands from time to time. We talk a lot about our thinking processes as we bid and play and just write up any hands that we find interesting. Last entry July 2018.
The Gargoyle Chronicles – Phillip Martin’s Bridge Blog features an ongoing match, where all his teammates and opponents are Jack, the computer program that won the 2009 World Computer Bridge Championships. Last post 2012
Free Bridge Blog. Frederick Staelens, Belgium. Last post 2009
Rueful Rabbit Blog – focus on bidding innovation + reports on the exploits of Irish players in International competition. Last post 2012
Justin Lall, Bridge Professional – last post 2012
GOOD PRACTICE: COPYRIGHT AND JOURNALIST ETHICS
Althought this item is dated 1998, it remains good advice today.
From the Minutes of the International Bridge Press Association General Meeting, Tuesday, September 1, 1998.
There was an animated discussion about copyright. Mr. Jannersten reported that one law existed to protect authors but that practice in using it differed from country to country. Participants in the ensuing discussion were: Messers Suri, Jourdain, Francis, Meyer and Truscott. It was an ethical matter more than a legal one with which members needed guidance. The key points to emerge for consideration by the Executive as good practice were:
Facts such as details of an actual deal are not copyright;
Invented deals such as Par Hands or Double Dummy Problems should be treated as words and subject to copyright;
Editors should not copy the words of a named author without crediting the author in the case of an extract, or asking permission in the case of the bulk of an article;
Authors who send the same words to more than one publication should tell the Editors what they have done Analysis of a deal is not copyright;
If an author is employed then ownership of the copyright is a matter between the author and employer, but others may work on the assumption that it is the employer who owns the copyright, particularly where the author is unnamed in such publications as Tournament Bulletins;
Further to this it could be good practice for such publications to have a clear statement regarding copyright of content so that contributing authors and prospective users of copy knew the published conditions;
Authors can give permission to specified third parties such as “other IBPA members” to reproduce their work;
IBPA is a members club where there is an assumption that the IBPA Bulletin may be expected to reproduce members’ work without payment or permission, but readers of the Bulletin must treat copy within the Bulletin as having the same copyright as the original work; Invented deals such as Par Hands our Double Dummy Problems should be treated as words and subject to copyright.
