The Ithacan Wins Best of Show

From left: Assistant News Editor Erica Palumbo, Assistant
Photo Editor Rachel Orlow, Chief Copy Editor and Sales
Manager Marissa Smith and Managing Editor Whitney
Faber in Orlando

The Ithacan print edition was awarded first place, and the Ithacan website was awarded second place, in their categories in the Best of Show competition at the National College Media Convention in Orlando, Fla., October 27–30.
The paper was also presented with a Newspaper Pacemaker Finalist Award at the convention. The Pacemakers, presented each year by the Associated Collegiate Press, are widely regarded as “the Pulitzer Prize of collegiate journalism” and are among the most prestigious student journalism awards in the country.
The paper has been a finalist eight times in the past 10 years, and won the award in 2005, 2006 and 2008. The website has won the Online Pacemaker Award four times in the past six years.

Ithacan Named CSPA Gold Medalist

The Ithacan has been named a Gold Medalist for both the Fall 2010 and Spring 2011 semesters in the Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s annual college newspaper critique.

Each year the CSPA evaluates member papers on overall content, news, depth reporting, features, opinion/editorial, sports, arts/entertainment, editing/headline writing and design/graphics based on more than 150 specific criteria. This year the paper’s scores on the critiques 1,000-point scale were 965 for each semester. The CSPA consistently ranks The Ithacan as a Gold Medalist, its highest category.

Among the judge’s comments, “You do an excellent job with this paper. Content is fresh, newsworthy, often unexpected. The look is also excellent: professional and interesting.”

Rob Bluey Swings by the Office

Rob Bluey ’01 and Ithacan photo
editor Michelle Boulé in the Ithacan
office.

Former Editor in Chief Rob Bluey ’01 came to Ithaca on Oct. 16 for the Alumni Association Board of Directors meeting and stopped in at The Ithacan office. He visited with some current staff members and then took me to lunch. (I know alumni are successful when they start taking me to lunch.) Rob is currently heading up The Heritage Foundation’s investigative reporting unit. You can follow his work at Scribe: Bluey Reports.

Lisa Boyars Launches New Project at Condé Nast

It’s always a pleasure to see Lisa Boyars ’01, so when she said she was coming to town for Fall Splash, I headed up to campus to visit with her and to meet her fiancé, Dave Gehrke. Lisa’s career at Conde Nast has been nothing short of stellar. Always eager to help our students, she agreed to come back the next day to meet with and advise our advertising staff. Here's what she has to say about her latest venture:

“In May 2011, I launched a new division of the organization: Conde Nast Ideactive.  We are a Brand Agency built on the Conde Nast DNA of igniting culture.
“Through a partnership with Conde Nast Ideactive, consumer brands are now able to leverage the same assets & resources used to build our editorial brands (like Vogue, Glamour, GQ, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Wired, Allure, Style.com, Epicurious, etc.) and apply them to tell their own powerful stories.  Current clients include Tourneau (custom online content), Cadillac (experience series with national chefs), GM (TV series with Conde Nast editors), and Swarovski (affluent database outreach). 
“I specifically am the Senior Director of Client Solutions – overseeing client engagements from strategy & concepting through execution.”

From left: Ithacan sales reps Taylor Palmer, Megan Harrison, sales manger Marissa Smith, Lisa Boyars ’01 and sales rep Patrick Duprey

Weiser Joins Tech Startup

Weiser back at his post.

Among the alumni who returned to campus for Fall Splash was former Sports Editor Andrew Weiser ’11, who has moved to New York and is already putting his many talents to use. He writes:

“In addition to deciphering the New York City subway system and dodging taxis, I’ve been spending my time interning for The Cools, a tech startup company, in Soho.

 “The Cools is a social online marketplace that is redefining the relationship between the buyer and seller, while tailoring every users’ experience to their different tastes.

 “At The Cools, I wear many hats, which is made harder by the fact that I sit on a fitness ball. I was hired as a Social Media Intern and began laying the ground work of our community outreach and user acquisition. Leveraging Twitter, Facebook and email, I helped spread the word about The Cools.

 “I’ve transitioned into a role where I work with our different environments, testing functionalities and making sure the user experience is the best it can be. With a background in Journalism, I also assist in the copy writing, which is different experience considering many of my coworkers are French.

“ It’s a combination of my passion for technology and writing, and I gladly shoulder the expenses to be able to say I get out of bed excited to go to work. C’est la vie.”

Fall Splash Brings Back Ithacan Alumni

From left: Rich Morris ’81, Jeff Selingo
 ’95, Mike Nagel ’04 and Alyssa Gardina ’08.

From left: Jill Kirtland Hughes ’03,
 Kelli Grant ’04 and Rob Engelsman ’10

Fall Splash brought quite a few Ithacan alumni back to campus to participate in activities and hang out with friends. Among the weekend’s events were two panel discussions sponsored by the Park School on Oct. 14. Former Ithacan Editor in Chief Jeff Selingo ’95, now vice president and editorial director of The Chronicle of Higher Education, and former News Editor Kelli Grant ’04, senior consumer reporter at SmartMoney.com, participated in “Using Social Media to Your Professional and Personal Advantage” at 2 p.m. Then former staff writer Cole Louison ’00, now at GQ magazine and the author of the recently published “The Impossible: Rodney Mullen, Ryan Sheckler, and the Fantastic History of Skateboarding,” currently the #1-selling book on skateboarding at Amazon.com, participated in “The Future of Communications: How Do We Reinvent Our Media Industries and Audiences” at 4 p.m. (Photos by Jacob Lifschultz)