View the winners lists here:
2008 NSPA Story of the Year Winners
2008 NSPA Picture of the Year Winners
2008 NSPA Design of the Year Winners
2008 NSPA Cartooning Award Winners
Later in the fall, at the above pages, there will be links to publication images and comments from the judges. These winners will be honored at the JEA/NSPA convention Nov. 13-16, 2008 in St. Louis. Here is a press release for the Individual Awards:
The National Scholastic Press Association is pleased to announce the winners in the 2008 Story of the Year, Photo Excellence, Design of the Year and Cartooning contests. Broadcast awards will be announced at a later date.
The Story of the Year contest recognizes initiative and original reporting of a situation, problem or issue affecting students. Students entered stories in the categories of news, feature, sports, editorial and diversity. Judges selected finalists based on the following criteria: Impact of story on the audience, quality of reporting and quotes, writing and editing, credibility and sensitivity. Out of the 868 total entries, judges from the American Society of Newspaper Editors chose 25 winners. The five First Place-winning stories will be entered into competition for the Brasler Prize, which includes a $1,000 cash award. The Brasler Prize winner will be announced at the convention in St. Louis.
The Photo Excellence contest honors student photographers in the categories of general news, spot news, feature, sports, environmental portrait and picture story. Judges selected finalists based on technical quality, artistic value and journalistic content. Out of the 866 entries, judges from the following organizations selected 36 winners: Panorama Productions & Digital Services, National Press Photographers Association and Discovery Communications.
The Design of the Year contest honors visual excellence in the scholastic press and is co-sponsored by Adobe Systems. Judges from Adobe selected the finalists based on the following criteria: contemporary appeal, trends, effective use of photos, color, art, graphics, typography and suitability for the respective audiences. Out of the 578 entries, 33 winners were selected. Due to the number of entries, only honorable mentions were awarded in the Literary Magazine Page/Spread category.
The Cartooning awards are co-sponsored by Universal Press Syndicate and the contest is divided in the categories of editorial cartoon and comic strip or panel. Entries were judged based on reader impact, community importance, artistic quality, originality and clarity of message. Out of the 194 entries, judges from Universal Press Syndicate chose six winners.
The winners will be honored at the JEA/NSPA Fall National High School Journalism Convention in St. Louis on Nov. 15. Registration for the convention is now available online at www.studentpress.org/nspa.
NSPA encourages properly cited use of this information for individual press releases. Please contact Kathy Huting, contest and critique coordinator, at kathy@studentpress.org for further information.
The National Scholastic Press Association is a non-profit education organization which strives to educate and recognize the work of student journalists, to improve the quality of student media and to foster careers in media.
# # #