Ithacan Wins CSPA Gold Crown

From left, Assistant Sports Editor Miles Surrey, Assistant Accent Editor
Steven Pirani, CSPA Director Edward Sullivan, Online Editor Jack Curran
and Assistant Photo Editor Tucker Mitchell at the award presentation
ceremony at the conference.

The Ithacan has been a been presented with a Gold Crown award by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association at the spring National College Media Convention in New York City. The Gold Crown awards are the highest honors presented by CSPA.

The award recognizes overall excellence in publications that work “to combine their digital and print publications as one.” This award was for work produced during the 2012–13 academic year (Kelsey O’Connor, editor in chief). It was presented in a ceremony on March 14 at the Sheraton Times Square Hotel.

Ithacan Named CSPA Crown Finalst

The Ithacan has been named one of 15 national finalists for the Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s 2014 Crown Award in the competition’s “hybrid” category. The hybrid category is defined as “print publications that provide live coverage via website between print editions.”

The list of finalists in this category includes publications from Ball State University, Indiana University, the University of Pennsylvania, Iowa State University and the University of Oklahoma, among others. The winners, who will receive either a Gold or Silver Crown, will be announced at the Spring National College Media Convention in New York City, March 12–15.

The Ithacan was awarded Gold Crowns in 2013 and 2012, and a Silver Crown in 2011.

Founded in 1925, the CSPA is owned by Columbia University and operated as a program affiliated with its Graduate School of Journalism. The Crown Awards, first presented in 1982, are the organization’s highest recognition of overall excellence.

New York Alumni Dinner Draws a Crowd

This spring’s dinner with New York City alumni drew a record crowd, with 21 alums and 11 current students in attendance. The dinner took place on March 11 at the Heartland Brewery Empire State Building location. The students and I were were town for the spring National College Media Convention where, as reported previously, The Ithacan picked up two Gold Crown awards from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.
It was great catching up with everyone, as always. The alumni represented a broad range of fields:
Newspapers/websites: Nic Barajas ’08 (New York Times), Aaron Edwards ’12 (Digital First Media), Erin Geismar ’09 (newsday.com), Casey Musarra ’11 (newsday.com), Kaydi Poirier ’11 (newsday.com), Kerry Tkacik ’12 (freelance);

From left: former EIC Aaron Edwards
’12, current EIC Kelsey O’Connor ’13
 and Lara Bonner ’12, who served as
managing editor for both of them.

Magazines/websites: Patrick Doyle (Rolling Stone), Kelli Grant ’04 (smartmoney.com), Cole Louison ’00 (GQ), Deepa Shah ’06 (Maxim), Libby Sile ’11 (Esquire);
Television: Evan Falk ’09 (FOX Business News);
Publishing: Lara Bonner ’12 (Sanford J. Greenburger Associates), James Sigman ’98 (John Wiley & Sons);
Marketing and design: Paul Colombo ’00 (Deep Focus), Lisa Boyars Gehrke ’01 (Condé Nast), Anthony Iaffaldano ’99 (Undertone), Laura Lubrano ’02 (Los Angeles Times), Matt Quintanilla ’07 (Arc90), Andrew Weiser ’11 (The Cools);
Real estate: Jim Hawver ’07 (Key New York).

From left: Paul Colombo ’00, Lisa
Boyars Gehrke ’01 and Anthony
 Iaffaldano ’99.

Current students: Kelsey O'Connor ’13 (editor in chief), Noreyana Fernando ’15 (assistant news editor), Sabrina Knight ’16 (assistant news editor), Rose Vardell ’14 (assistant accent editor), Emily Hull ’15 (assistant sports editor), Rachel Woolf ’15 (photo editor), Jaclyn Cataldi ’15 (multimedia editor), Emily Fuller ’15 (design editor), Alexandra Evans ’13 (former opinion editor), Shea O'Meara ’13 (opinion editor), and Rachel Orlow ’13 (Year in Review photo editor).

From left: Laura Lubrano ’02 talks to
Kesh Center director Bob Regan.

In addition, Bob Regan, the Park School’s director of the Dr. John Keshishoglou Center for Global Communications Innovation (or the Kesh Center, for short), stopped in to talk about the school’s new Executive Master’s in Communications Innovation and bring the alumni up to speed on recent Park School developments.

From left: Libby Sile 11, Patrick Doyle and Rose Vardell ’14.

From left: current assistant sports editor Emily Hull ’15 with
former sports editors Andrew Weiser ’11 and Casey Musarra ’11.

From left: Matt Quintanilla ’07, Deepa Shah ’06 and Jim Hawver ’07.

Ithacan Wins Gold Crown Awards

Ithacan editors are presented with two Gold Crown awards by C. Bruce
Watterson, chair of the CSPA judging committee.

The Ithacan has been a been presented with two Gold Crown awards by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association at the spring National College Media Convention in New York City. The Gold Crown awards are the highest honors presented by CSPA.

This year the CSPA offered different category options to entrants. Publications could enter in the traditional newspaper and online categories, or in a new third “hybrid” category, described as “a publication that works to combine their digital and print publications as one.” Since this reflects the goals of the Ithacan’s editors, the publication was entered in this category. The publication won Gold Crown awards in the hybrid category for both the Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 semesters (Aaron Edwards ’12, editor in chief). The awards were presented in a ceremony on March 10 at the Sheraton Times Square Hotel.