NSPA honors innovation

Three scholastic media programs earn Pacemakers

April 6, 2024

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI — Honoring the nation’s best, the National Scholastic Press Association named three high school student media programs as Innovation Pacemaker winners.

The innovation winners, plus the 2024 Online Pacemaker and 2023 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 6.

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

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 Innovation Pacemaker, in its third year, 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.”

On March 1, six finalists, representing five states, were named as 2024 Pacemaker finalists.

NCHS Live!

North Central High School
Indianapolis, Indiana

Student leadership: Janie Akers, Heath Kizer, Patrick McPherson, Luke Routt

Adviser: Tom Gayda

NCHS Live! is the converged news source informing North Central High School by delivering integrated content on the web, social media and in print. This year, NCHS Live! used social media to bring attention to important topics.

In October, NCHS Live! focused on micro-aggressions by highlighting a different student’s experience each day with 21 “Dear World” posts.

In January, NCHS Live! Cares launched a five-month series on mental health, focusing on a different topic each month with content delivered daily. Resources were provided on the website. The reporting culminated in May with a special edition of the print newspaper.

Ladue Publications

Ladue Horton Watkins High School
St. Louis, Missouri

Student leadership: Mac Huffman, Rory Lustberg, Annie Zhao

Advisers: Abigail Eisenberg, Sarah Kirksey

The Talon is serving its school with an inclusive yearbook program that transcends traditional boundaries and fosters unity as students with and without disabilities work together. The journalists (four students in special education), collaborate with their assistants (four general education students), to report the school year on the pages of the Talon. The collaboration extends to training sessions where all the students learn together.

Student response to an “Inside Identity” section published in Panorama magazine covering teen identity ranging from race to gender inspired the creation of “ID” — an in-depth magazine reporting on the personal stories of student and staff identity. The first issue of ID Magazine was published in January 2023.

Talon

Lincoln Southwest High School
Lincoln, Nebraska

Student leadership: Staff

Adviser: Brandi Benson

The Talon is serving its school with an inclusive yearbook program that transcends traditional boundaries and fosters unity as students with and without disabilities work together. The journalists (four students in special education), collaborate with their assistants (four general education students), to report the school year on the pages of the Talon. The collaboration extends to training sessions where all the students learn together.