I agree with Ann, since the money part for me is a nuisance given the clumsy way payment is handled for Americans. It's all about the glory, since I rarely see any of the money even when I win.

I'm adjusting my post above to reflect the new Oldie results that came out before the new year. (How did we get 14 Oldie results between January and December?)

Let's not forget that having poems published in the Speccie or the Oldie means that tens of thousands of people actually read them (assuming they don't just skip that bit of the magazine.) I was very tickled to get on a train a few years ago and see that the chap next to me was reading a poem of mine in the Spectator. I think he may even have chuckled at one point. That was far more thrilling than the thirty quid.

Rob, do you happen to know the circulation or readership claims of the Speccie or the Oldie? Whatever the number is, my baseless guess would be that about 10-20% read the contest results in any given week. Of all the contests, though, you'll probably reach the most eyes with the Washington Post Style invitational, since their print edition is around 700K these days, and they have a vibrant online readership in addition.

Bob,

This needs updating... but it was around 45K for The Oldie two years ago

This also needs updating for The Spectator

It provides a bit of a guide to readership...

Jayne

Can you do that without subscribing, Rogerbob?

Me, stepping in again....
Yes, you can, Annie. The Style Invitational is a fantastic comp. I enter it sometimes, and even won a prize once.
Lots of Sphereans, including Bob, are multiple winners.

Jayne

Ann, you don't need to subscribe to The Washington Post to enter the invitational. In fact, the newest contest is one that may interest you and others here, since it calls for obit poems about anyone who died during 2018 (up to eight lines).

The WaPo does have a pay wall, however, so you might be cut off after a certain number of page views. One of the ways you can get around that is to cut and paste the URL of the page into an "incognito" window (or whatever your browser calls the sort of window/tab that purges all cookies and trackers). Another way is to join the Facebook group of "Devotees" because the editor, Pat Myers, always posts non-paywall links there. And you can also join the highly-educated Devotees as they make horribly juvenile puns and make fun of other people's poor grasp of grammar and spelling.

The bad news: the only prizes they offer are gag prizes, mostly refrigerator magnets with bad puns on them. But the chance to have your name printed so many times that the required ink could fill a swimming pool makes it all worthwhile.

Thanks Rogerbob. I have to do the private window thingy sometimes when I've overstayed my welcome on Lucy's page (Firefox has a "burglar" icon), but would you be able to invite me to the Devotees group, please?

That's the heart of the matter, Rob, and, better, *The Spectator* appears to believe that our work is among the reasons some of those readers pay for *The Spectator*. It would be considerably less validating if *The Spectator* followed the more common modern business model and asked us to write content for free in exchange for the privilege of having it read by that audience.

Of course, I don't mean to knock lit journals that don't pay contributors. Most are in very different financial situations from *The Spectator*.

(I wrote this post before seeing that the Style Invitational had been mentioned in this thread, so I should add that it was not meant as a knock to the Invitational either, though the situation there is rather complicated, since the *Post*, a wonderful newspaper I'm pleased to support, is owned by the guy who owns Amazon.)