NSPA honors innovation

New Pacemaker competition encourages
out-of-the-box thinking and rewards student media
for the courage to take chances to improve service
to their school community

April 22, 2023

SAN FRANCISCO — Honoring the nation’s best, National Scholastic Press Association has awarded two high school media programs with an Innovation Pacemaker.

The Innovation winners, plus the 2022 Literary Arts Magazine Pacemaker, 2023 Online Pacemaker and 2022 Yearbook Pacemaker winners, were announced for the first time during the closing awards ceremony of the JEA/NSPA Spring National High School Journalism Convention on April 22.

On Feb. 24, NSPA announced five 2023 Innovation Pacemaker finalists.

The NSPA Pacemaker, one of the oldest awards for scholastic journalism, has a rich tradition. The association started presenting the prestigious award to high school newspapers soon after the organization was founded in 1921. Throughout the years, yearbooks, magazines, online sites and broadcast programs were added to the competition. The organization is celebrating its 100th birthday.

The Innovation Pacemaker is designed to encourage out-of-the-box thinking and reward student media for the courage to take chances to improve service to their customers, readers and communities.

“Student media is rapidly changing and top programs are finding innovative ways to deliver content to their readers while building unified and converged teams,” associate director Gary Lundgren said. “Print is now just one component — there is far more to a successful student media program than publishing the campus newspaper and yearbook.”

“The Pacemaker is the association’s preeminent award,” Executive Director Laura Widmer said. “NSPA is honored to recognize the best of the best.”

NCHS Live!
North Central High School
Indianapolis, Indiana
Student leaders: Gus Osborn, Lucy Pappas
Adviser: Tom Gayda

FHNtodayTV
Francis Howell North High School
St. Charles, Missouri
Student leaders: Jackson Cutlan, Parker Smith, Marina Williams
Adviser: Aaron Manfull