Evaluate your student-media work with an ACP critique. It’s one of the best ways to assess your strengths and your challenges, and it provides helpful advice on improving how you serve readers.

Professional journalists, experienced media advisers and other media professionals serve on the ACP board of judges, and ACP offers specific critique formats to meet your needs.

A virtual critique ($149) is a 1-hour assessment of your publication, site or broadcast. In a virtual meeting with you and your staff, a judge provides constructive criticism, with specific strengths and specific challenges for improvement.

In a traditional critique ($119), the judge writes comments and scores your publication/site/broadcast in several categories, including coverage, writing and design. The composite score from all sections gives the publication an honor rating ranging from Third Class to All American. The All American rating is the highest rating given to any publication in the critique service. Media that have achieved 10 All American honor ratings in an 11-year span are inducted into the All-American Hall of Fame.

An annotated critique ($169) expands upon the traditional critique with judge annotations on your publication. It’s available for newspaper, online and yearbook.

The critique service usually takes 10 to 14 weeks. ACP makes every effort to return the completed critique as soon as possible.

A separate resource from NSPA critiques is a consultation, a 1-hour interaction to give you advice on a specific subject. Get more information here.

Associated Collegiate Press established a Hall of Fame for member student publications in 1987.

Publications can qualify for the ACP Hall of Fame in three ways: if you’ve earned 10 All-American ratings from our publication critique service within an 11-year span, received a total of 10 national Pacemaker awards since 1970 or received a combination of 15 national Pacemaker and Pacemaker finalist awards since 1970.

Hall of Fame inductees receive a special honor plaque to mark the induction and are added to the ACP Hall of Fame page, plaque and banner.

New Hall of Fame inductions are made once a year, in May, and are honored the following fall at the ACP/CMA National College Media Convention.

Apply for Hall of Fame status by writing a letter indicating the name of the publication, information showing the publication meets the induction criteria and publication/adviser contact information. Mail it to ACP Hall of Fame, 2829 University Ave. SE, Suite 720, Minneapolis, MN 55414. The letter must be received by Sept. 15 to be inducted that year and honored at that year’s convention.