FIFTY students at the Singapore Press Holdings News Centre got a taste of the 'news buzz' on Tuesday.

As finalists at the fourth annual National Schools Newspaper Competition, they were vying for the top prize of an internship at The Straits Times' newsroom and cash prize of $3,000.

Teams of five gathered in the News Centre auditorium, representing the top 10 secondary schools selected from 22 school newsletters submitted.

Their task: to produce a four-page tabloid sized newspaper within 24 hours.

'We have the X-factor as we are building on the strengths of each team member,' said an enthusiastic team member Alexander Lee, 15, a Secondary 3 student from first-time finalist St Joseph's Institution, who added they were 'very confident of our chances'.

Joining them were teams from Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road), Cedar Girls' School, CHIJ St Nicholas Girls' School, Jurong Secondary School, Pei Hwa Secondary School, Raffles Girls' School, Raffles Institution, Victoria School and Yuying Secondary School.

Ms Serene Goh, editor of The Straits Times' school publications, IN and Little Red Dot said each year Raffles Institution is 'the team to beat'.

'But I think Raffles Girls and the defending champs from CHIJ St Nicholas are gearing up for a fight.'

Finalists had undergone a separate day of training from Comat Training Services on Microsoft Publisher to prepare them. They so impressed Comat's director of sales, Mr Linus Tan, he said: 'They produced work beyond what we taught them.'

At the start of the showdown on Tuesday, finalists viewed a military-styled video briefing from Straits Times' supervising editor Ms Bertha Henson, which challenged them to be brief, accurate and truthful, among other things.

They then launched into assignments - a photo-feature on police trainees at the Chua Chu Kang Home Team Academy, a profile interview of youth table-tennis star Isabelle Li, and a poll of 30 teens about pocket money.

At a mock press conference on the Youth Olympic Games, contestants pitched questions on issues such as getting foreign talents to represent Singapore at sports, among others.

Mr Teo Ser Luck, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Community Development, Youth and Sports, who field the questions, said they were 'thoughtful and insightful'. 'I was quite surprised - the students have done their homework and they were ready.'

Completed entries are to be handed in on Wednesday , and judges will announce winners on Dec 12 at The Straits Times' Media Club camp, held twice a year exclusively for secondary school subscribers to the newspaper.

Gold Award winners will receive internships and a cash prize of $3,000; Silver Award winners, $2,000; Bronze Award winners, $1,000. Three merit awards of $500 and four consolation prizes of $200 will also be awarded.

Schools interested in subscribing to The Straits Times' IN and Little Red Dot should direct queries to Ms Theresa Ling on 6319-2166 or Ms Shahrena Hassan on 6319-5097, or e-mail cirschool@sph.com.sg for details.