Sunday, March 19, 2017

High CSPA Honors for The Ithacan

From left: Ithacan Assistant Multimedia Editor Connor Duffy,
Assistant Life & Culture Editor Jake Leary, CSPA Executive
Director Edmund Sullivan, Assistant Photo Editor Connor Lange,
and Assistant Multimedia Editor Matt Mahoney at the Crown
Award Presentation in New York on March 12.
The Ithacan had a strong showing at the spring National College Media Convention in New York City, March 11–13. The paper was awarded the Columbia Scholastic Press Association Silver Crown for overall excellence for 2015–16 (Kira Maddox ’16, editor-in-chief), as well as the 2017 “Apple Award” for Best in Show in the newspaper category, presented by the College Media Association.
The Crown Award was in the “hybrid” category, which evaluates entries on the basis of the effectiveness with which they combine their print and online publications. The Best in Show Award was based on three issues of the paper submitted from the 2016–17 academic year (Kayla Dwyer ’17, editor-in-chief).

Meeting the Family

At our last Ithacan editorial board meeting before leaving for the spring National College Media Convention in New York last weekend, I told the board that I would be bringing the current editors who would be participating in the conference  to “meet the family” — namely our New York Ithacan alumni — at our annual spring dinner. I compared it to an extended family reunion where you meet a whole bunch of cool, interesting cousins you never knew you had.

From left: Jake Leary, Scott McDermott,
Graham Hebel, Fernando Ferraz
and Connor Lange.
And a family reunion is what it always feels like. This year’s group spanned more than two decades, from the class of 1997 to the current freshmen attending the conference. Forty of us turned out on Monday night despite the impending blizzard scheduled to start at midnight. The photo section was well-represented, with eight former and current editors present, including a rare appearance by Scott McDermott! And Jill Agostino stopped by — her first dinner with the New York crew since the Times moved her back to the city from D.C. (where our alumni are still missing her). 

Evin Billington, Miles Surrey,
Aaron Edwards and Frances Johnson
The alumni lineup consisted of Jill Agostino ’86, Nicolas Barajas ’08, Evin Billington ’16, Jaclyn Cataldi ’15, Jack Curran ’15, Jared Dionne ’13, William Earl ’09, Aaron Edwards ’12, Evan Falk ’09, Max Gillilan ’16, James Hawver ’07, Graham Hebel ’13, Frances Johnson ’16, Sami Khan ’02, Kira Maddox ’16, Scott McDermott ’97, Tucker Mitchell ’16, Casey Musarra ’11, Gillian Nigro ’14, Rachel Orlow ’13, Taylor Palmer ’14, Steven Pirani ’16, Matt Quintanilla ’07, Deepa Shah ’06, Elizabeth Sile ’11, Shawn Steiner ’13, Miles Surrey ’15, Andy Swift ’09, Andrew Weiser ’11, Jennifer Williams ’16, Stacey Coburn Williams ’07, Chloe Wilson ’14 and Vicky Wolak ’14.

Jim Hawver, Matt Quintanilla, Deepa
Shah and Stacey Coburn Williams
Current students who attended were Editor-in-Chief Kayla Dwyer ’17, Assistant Multimedia Editor Connor Duffy ’20, Photo Editor Fernando Ferraz ’17, Assistant Photo Editor Connor Lange ’19, Assistant Life & Culture Editor Jake Leary ’20 and Assistant Multimedia Editor Matt Maloney ’20.

Jack Curran, Gillian Nigro and Kira Maddox
Kayla Dwyer, Libby Sile and Bill Earl
It was terrific to see everyone, as always. Thank you to the good people at Heartland Brewery and Chophouse at on W. 43rd St., who made sure we had a good time, as they have for many years now. And special thanks to Deepa Shah, without whose organizational talents — and generosity — these events would be a lot more difficult to manage. 
Andrew Weiser, Casey Musarra
and Evan Falk
Shawn Steiner, Jennifer Williams
and Steve Pirani
Taylor Palmer and Chloe Wilson

Monday, March 13, 2017

The Daily Signal Fights for Recognition


In 2014, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, started its own journalism outlet, The Daily Signal, installing former Ithacan editor-in-chief Rob Bluey ’01 as editor-in-chief. Since then, Bluey has been arguing for the Signal’s legitimacy as a news source in the face of criticism by mainstream news organizations and others that it practices not journalism but partisan political advocacy. Here's the latest skirmish in that battle

Wednesday, March 08, 2017