Society of Professional Journalists Names Ithacan Website Best in the Northeast

 The Society of Professional Journalists has named The Ithacan’s website the Best Affiliated Newspaper Website in the Northeast Region for 2016. The website received the first place Mark of Excellence Award at the SPJ Region 1 conference April 8 at John Jay College of CUNY in New York.

The website now goes on to compete against the winners in the other 11 SPJ regions for the national Mark of Excellence Award. That award will be presented at the SPJ national convention Sept. 7–9 in Anaheim, California. The SPJ is the largest professional organization of reporters and editors in the country.

In addition, the Ithacan’s print newspaper was honored as a Finalist in the Best All-Around Nondaily Newspaper category.

(Shown in photo, from left: Ithacan Webmaster Evan Sobkowicz ’17 and Editor-in-Chief Kayla Dwyer’17 with the awards.)

SPJ Names Ithacan Best in the Northeast

The Society of Professional Journalists has once again named The Ithacan the Best Nondaily Student Newspaper in the Northeast Region. The paper received the first place Mark of Excellence Award this afternoon at the SPJ Region 1 conference at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J.

The paper now goes on to compete against the winners in the other 11 SPJ regions for the national Mark of Excellence Award. The winner will be announced at the SPJ national convention this fall. The SPJ is the largest professional organization of reporters and editors in the country.

SPJ named The Ithacan the Best Nondaily Student Newspaper in the country in 2012.

Ithacan Named SPJ Regional Finalist

The Ithacan has been named a finalist to receive a Mark of Excellence Award from the Society of Professional Journalists Northeast Region (Region 1) at the group’s annual meeting, to be held April 12–13 at Rutgers University’s New Brunswick, N.J., campus.
The award is for overall excellence. The actual place awarded will be announced at the conference awards ceremony. The winner of the regional competition will go on to compete against the winners of SPJ’s other 11 regions for the national Mark of Excellence Award.
The Ithacan received SPJ’s national Mark of Excellence Award for Best Non-Daily Newspaper in the country in 2012.

Fall Awards Wrap-Up

Editor in Chief Kelsey
O'Connor and Webmaster
Honest Charley Bodkin
at the Fall National
College Media Convention

The academic year began well on the external-recognition front. This fall’s award parade started with The Ithacan being presented with the Mark of Excellence Award for Best All-Around Non-Daily Newspaper in the country (announced back in April) at the Society of Professional Journalists’ national convention on Sept. 22 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Then at the end of October, The Ithacan was honored with the Online Pacemaker Award for 2012 at the Fall National College Media Convention in Chicago. The Pacemakers are the highest honors awarded by the Associated Collegiate Press and are widely regarded as “the Pulitzer Prize of collegiate journalism.” The Ithacan website has won the Pacemaker Award five times in the past seven years. The paper’s website was also awarded second place in the convention’s on-site Best in Show competition. 

In addition, the print edition of the paper was presented with a Newspaper Pacemaker Finalist Award at the convention and won second place in its category in the Best in Show competition as well. 
Finally, in a combined newspaper/website critique, The Ithacan was named a Gold Medalist for both the Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 semesters in the Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s annual college publication critique.
Among the judge’s comments for the fall semester: “When a reader picks up the newspaper, the stories and design, the complete package are so compelling, that he feels he must read almost every story before putting the paper down.” And for the spring semester he began, “I've run out of superlatives.”
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 critique’s 1,000-point scale were 954 for the fall semester and 961 for the spring. The CSPA consistently ranks The Ithacan as a Gold Medalist, its highest category.

More Awards for The Ithacan

The Ithacan was awarded the Second Place Mark of Excellence Award for Best All-Around Non-Daily Newspaper by the Society of Professional Journalists, Northeast Region, at the SPJ Region 1 Convention on April 9 in Providence, R.I.

In addition, junior Whitney Faber received a Second Place Mark of Excellence Award for feature writing at the convention for her story “Behind the Lens,” which appeared in the Sept. 2, 2010, issue of The Ithacan.

On the same day, in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., The Ithacan staff was honored with half a dozen awards in the New York Press Association’s annual Better College Newspaper Competition.
Senior Allison Usavage (shown above) won first place for photography for her photograph “Standing Strong,” which appeared in the March 4, 2010, Ithacan.
Senior Michelle Skowronek won third place for feature writing for “Gay Enough?” which appeared in the paper’s April 15, 2010, issue.
In addition, the paper won second place for design, second place for sports coverage, third place for editorial and third place for general excellence.