The table below lists the first- and second-place winners, and honorable mentions for campus newspapers in the 2016 CNPA Better Newspapers Contest. Judge’s comments appear in the right column. Some entries did not receive judge’s comments. Use the search box at the top right of the table to quickly locate your publication or writer.
Advertising Excellence Contest winners
| Category | Place | Newspaper | Name of Entry | Credit | Judge’s Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best Writing | 1st | Archbishop Riordan High School — The Crusader | EpiPen price pierces patients’ pockets | Roman Peregrino | |
| Best Sports Game Story | 2nd | Archbishop Riordan High School — The Crusader | Cross Country sets pace for successful season | Harrick Wu | |
| Sports Action Photo | Honorable Mention | Archbishop Riordan High School — The Crusader | Frosh Olympics results still under review | Stephen Aguirre | Nice sharp, action photo from Ping Pong. You were able to clearly stop the action in what can be a very fast-moving sport. Nice color. |
| General Excellence | Honorable Mention | Archbishop Riordan High School — The Crusader | March and December 2016 | The Crusader Staff | |
| Sports Action Photo | Honorable Mention | Bakersfield College — The Renegade Rip | Hurdler | Joe Bergman | |
| Feature Photo | Honorable Mention | Cal Poly-Pomona — The Poly Post | Getting Ready for the Rose Parade | Eviana Vergara | This is an unusual photo, portraying the people as very small even though they’re what draws your eye. The photo helps tell a story about the Rose Parade work itself—its size and intricacy are clearly communicated here—and shows the level of detail and focus required by the creative team behind it. |
| Best Writing | Honorable Mention | Castro Valley High School — The Olympian | Emotional two-day event aims to prevent impaired driving tragedies | Molly Koch | |
| Profile Feature Story | 2nd | Castro Valley High School — The Olympian | He walked 2,663 miles so his friend could walk at all | Anastasia Le | Excellent profile piece. It was tough to judge this as second place because it is well done. It is well written with good transitions and relevant quotes. Good job. |
| Best Sports Game Story | Honorable Mention | Castro Valley High School — The Olympian | Basketball team makes history in tremendous season | Desiree Broome and Gavin Halloran | |
| Best Columns | 1st | Castro Valley High School — The Olympian | Understanding eating disorders and body imaging/Clinton: “nasty,” smart woman deserved better | Halley Lin-Jones | This columnist exhibits honesty about her close encounter with anorexia and wisdom beyond her years in her cut-to-the-bone opinion that Hillary Clinton lost just because she was a woman. Her treatment of both topics come across as truthful and true to her. |
| Illustration | 1st | Castro Valley High School — The Olympian | Moana Review | Da Di | |
| News Photo | 1st | Castro Valley High School — The Olympian | Every 15 Minutes | Halley Lin-Jones | While the “Every 15 Minutes” photos have become kind of clichéd, this one really captures the moment. Great composition and terrific work with the light. Great capture — raw, evocative and powerful. Hopefully will drum home the message of the campaign. |
| News Photo | Honorable Mention | Castro Valley High School — The Olympian | CVHS Election Protests | Hannah Johansson | Some photos work because of what they hint at but don’t tell. The fact that the photographer focused on the girl in the headscarf makes me want to know more about her and her connection to the protests. And the photo was shot at just the right moment. |
| Online General Excellence | Honorable Mention | Castro Valley High School — The Olympian | cvhsolympian.com | Olympian Staff | |
| General Excellence | Honorable Mention | Castro Valley High School — The Olympian | Nov. 4 and Dec. 2, 2016 | Olympian Staff | |
| Enterprise News Story or Series | 1st | City College of San Francisco — The Guardsman | CCSF Maintenence Woes | Marco Siler-Gonzales, David Horowitz, Cassie Ordonio | Reporters did some digging into underlying causes, although I’d like to have heard from a climate expert from the area about the rust and how to ameliorate the weather’s effects. |
| Best Sports Game Story | Honorable Mention | City College of San Francisco — The Guardsman | City’s worst loss of the year | Shannon Cole | Lots of things to like about this story. |
| Online General Excellence | Honorable Mention | City College of San Francisco — The Guardsman | theguardsman.com | Staff | Fantastic, splashy artwork on featured story “The city VS. Trump” but the image and headline appear in four places atop the home page, which is overwhelming. Grid-style presentation of home page works with strong headlines and artwork — a deviation for standard design. Twitter feed down the side is a bit confusing because text is removed from context of Twitter/conversations. The quality of the writing and breadth of local coverage are excellent. Some of the story choices are refreshing and unique. However, the website layout could be improved by breaking things up by section, instead of having one massive list of latest stories from all sections. Also, there needs to be more art included. Most of the lead stories do not have art included with them, which leaves them less than eye-catching. |
| Best Columns | Honorable Mention | Claremont High School — The Wolfpacket | Kickin’ With Kellan Grant | Kellan Grant | |
| Best Writing | Honorable Mention | Contra Costa College — The Advocate | Circumcision? Or mutilation? | Benjamin Bassham | |
| Best Columns | Honorable Mention | Contra Costa College — The Advocate | Spreading knowledge is an art, not a job; Hold your nose and vote for freedom | Benjamin Bassham | |
| Photo Illustration | 1st | Contra Costa College — The Advocate | Crude oil pipeline fuels protests | Marci Suela | The photo collage within a cutout was impressive enough, but when coupled with the map and the “pipeline” timeline this was definitely first-place work! |
| Photo Illustration | Honorable Mention | Contra Costa College — The Advocate | Creator aspires to perfect craft | Marci Suela | Very creative way to feature several somewhat simple photos. |
| Illustration | 2nd | Contra Costa College — The Advocate | Undocumented students lack support, resources | Marci Suela | Haunting illustration. Effective in its message showing confusion and lack of support. |
| News Photo | Honorable Mention | Contra Costa College — The Advocate | Election results spur outrage | Denis Perez | Nice unexpected quiet reflection in a chaotic situation. |
| News Photo | Honorable Mention | Contra Costa College — The Advocate | Youth protest against Trump | Denis Perez | Good choice of color, conscious decision to shoot low to high helped get it into the top 4. |
| Sports Action Photo | Honorable Mention | Contra Costa College — The Advocate | Father, Comet forward leads playoff dream | Cody Casares | |
| Online General Excellence | 2nd | Contra Costa College — The Advocate | cccadvocate.com | The Advocate staff | Strong flag with dominant art work on top is enticing. Five squares of feature stories with “pop-up” headlines bring variety to the page. Print edition window was nonfunctional during my viewing. Sports score ticker is another nice touch, but could me more visually engaging. The quality of the writing and breadth of the content is incredible. The layout of the homepage and individual section homes is excellent, very clean and readable with great use of art. Fair amount of multimedia available (likely most is on social media) is separate section, but not always within individual stories. Unsure what the difference is between Opinion and Forum. |
| General Excellence | Honorable Mention | Contra Costa College — The Advocate | Oct.19 and Nov. 2, 2016 | The Advocate staff | |
| Best Writing | 2nd | CSU Bakersfield — The Runner | Through labor, dreams are reborn | Chris Mateo | If Chris Mateo is willing to work on his imagery, style and organization, he will become a journalist with real impact. The potential for a very powerful story is there with, especially, the voices of workers in the field. However, the story needs a better narrative focus — is it a story about you and your work in the fields or how your life compares to that of farm workers? |
| Best Sports Game Story | 2nd | CSU Bakersfield — The Runner | Larios powered by guardian angel | Syleena Perez | Good use of quotes. The story gave me chicken skin. |
| Photo Illustration | Honorable Mention | CSU Bakersfield — The Runner | Basketball Preview | AJ Alvarado | |
| Feature Photo | Honorable Mention | CSU Bakersfield — The Runner | No shelter from the cold | Ben Patton | These photos help clearly tell the story, giving the reader/viewer eye contact with sources. The close-up portraits are a dignified way to present people who live on the street. The slightly wider shot of the cardboard box shelter helps put the portraits in context. There is a lot of emotion and storytelling contained in these photos. |
| Online General Excellence | Honorable Mention | CSU Chico — The Orion | theorion.com | Staff | This is a clean, easy to read website. One of the few college paper websites to have a Twitter feed on the site. Would like to see a little more mixing it up in the page design. |
| Best Writing | Honorable Mention | CSU Fullerton — Daily Titan | Body found in Newport ID’d as missing CSUF student | Micah Augimeri-Lee, Breanna Vasquez | Writer is to be commended for staying away from police jargon. The story has lots of detail, clearly laid out, but strive to order things a bit better. The reader appeal is undeniable as the death of a student would be widely shocking. |
| Profile Feature Story | Honorable Mention | CSU Fullerton — Daily Titan | Student racer kicks his passion into high gear | Kaleb Stewart | |
| Profile Feature Story | Honorable Mention | CSU Fullerton — Daily Titan | Whitmore embraces challenge, softball | Hayley M. Slye | |
| Best Sports Game Story | 1st | CSU Fullerton — Daily Titan | Titan baseball slugs way to sweep over UC Davis | Hayley M. Slye | Strong, confident writing. |
| Photo Illustration | Honorable Mention | CSU Fullerton — Daily Titan | Local spots help celebrate romantic holiday | Patrick Do, Jillian Lees | |
| News Photo | Honorable Mention | CSU Fullerton — Daily Titan | Unruly protests erupt at Trump rally in OC | Micah Augimeri-Lee | Love the use of the flair in this photo to accentuate the line of police standing against a group of protesters. The colors in this photo are vivid, and the photographer does an excellent job showing the energy of the scene. |
| Sports Action Photo | 1st | CSU Fullerton — Daily Titan | Baseball hits the road for Bakersfield | Patrick Do | |
| Best Writing | Honorable Mention | CSU Sacramento — The State Hornet | Sac State students brush with volunteerism during Paint the Town | Barbara Harvey | Strong narrative lead vividly sets the scene. Was “female resident” the best word choice? This would have rung more genuinely with readers with more reaction from students and Sacramento residents who benefited from the work. |
| Best Sports Game Story | Honorable Mention | CSU Sacramento — The State Hornet | No. 14 Cal Poly runs over Hornet football team 59-47 | Angel Guerrero | Well written but too long. |
| Sports Action Photo | Honorable Mention | CSU Sacramento — The State Hornet | Men’s soccer vs UC Davis | Matthew Dyer | |
| Online General Excellence | Honorable Mention | CSU Sacramento — The State Hornet | statehornet.com | Staff | Bold, in-your-face website. Catches viewer’s attention. The news ticker (top stories) could be more prominently displayed. I didn’t see it at first. Would also like to see more text on the page. |
| General Excellence | Honorable Mention | CSU Sacramento — The State Hornet | Nov. 10 and 17, 2016 | Staff | Well written, good use of quotes, clean layout, nice photography, especially some of the sports action photos. |
| Best Sports Game Story | 1st | El Camino College — The Union | El Camino can’t overcome early turnovers in loss to Saddleback College | Eric Ramos | Good, clean easy to read copy. Not a lot of numbers, but great story telling. |
| Best Columns | Honorable Mention | El Camino College — The Union | Coachella and Killer’s sentencing | Phil Sidavong | Real nice page setup, and easy to read. |
| Illustration | Honorable Mention | El Camino College — The Union | Academics v athletics | Eugene Chang | Well done. Message is clever but clear. Nicely drawn. |
| Feature Photo | 1st | El Camino College — The Union | Anonymous smoker | Alain Miranda | Photo is clear and provides a good depth of field. The composition of the student holding the cigarette makes it appear as though the cigarette is his eye. It was a smart composition choice by the photographer. |
| Feature Photo | Honorable Mention | El Camino College — The Union | El Camino sophomore soccer player | Elijah Hicks | Colors are well-balanced, photo is clear. Framing of the photo gives a different look to present a feature story about a soccer player aside from the normal “soccer stance.” Photo matches story about player’s love of the game. |
| Sports Action Photo | 2nd | El Camino College — The Union | Diving into the end zone | Jackie Romano | |
| Best Writing | 1st | Fresno City College — Rampage | The Revival of Ruby Red | Ashleigh Panoo | Compelling story. In the opening anecdote the reader is there with the subject huddled in a house in the midst of gunshots. The writer tells the story using multiple senses. And the author threads the story throughout with great quotes. |
| Profile Feature Story | 1st | Fresno City College — Rampage | 9/11 Responder Spreads Message of Love and Hope | Frank Lopez | Good job of capturing the feelings and telling the story. The reporter offers a life trajectory and brings the 9/11 event to life in a vivid and intuitive way that made reading this story both real and inspiring. |
| Feature Photo | Honorable Mention | Fresno City College — Rampage | L.O.U.D. | Ram Reyes | In photos the subject is one of the most important parts and Promise Nevarez is a good subject. Great capture of her face in this moment. The slight graininess of the photo works with the overall composition. |
| Sports Action Photo | 1st | Fresno City College — Rampage | Boxing | Larry Valenzuela | |
| General Excellence | Honorable Mention | Fresno City College — Rampage | Oct. 11 and 25, 2016 | Staff | |
| Enterprise News Story or Series | Honorable Mention | Granite Bay High School — The Gazette | Is the Trump Effect a reality? | Hannah Xu | Well written. Reads more like a story found in a daily or weekly rather than a campus paper. |
| Best Writing | 2nd | Granite Bay High School — The Gazette | Padgett resigns from GBHS over summer | Connor Hinson | |
| Profile Feature Story | Honorable Mention | Granite Bay High School — The Gazette | Faithful four-legged friend fetches attention | Sydney Zabell | A good story that should have been featured more prominently. This is an interesting topic and the story could have been featured with a larger photo. Writing is very good. |
| Best Sports Game Story | 1st | Granite Bay High School — The Gazette | Does success cover controversy? | Will Anderson | |
| Best Columns | Honorable Mention | Granite Bay High School — The Gazette | Multilingualism broadens minds AND You can’t force an empty pledge | Carissa Lewis | |
| Best Columns | 2nd | Granite Bay High School — The Gazette | Hell hath no fury like a smart kid scorned AND The death penalty should meet its end | Anjali Shrivastava | As with the first place winner in this category, this columnist uses his own truth to share about a personal challenge, and in doing so, he likely offers relief to others. That takes a certain kind of humility that we need more of in this world. His column on abolishing the death penalty uses logic and pathos effectively. |
| Photo Illustration | Honorable Mention | Granite Bay High School — The Gazette | LGBT history added to crowded K-12 curriculum | Carissa Lewis | The book’s pages pop with the message that everyone has his/her story and it’s truly a rainbow world! Loved it! This photo illustration’s worth a thousand words! |
| Illustration | 2nd | Granite Bay High School — The Gazette | Religious allusions | Hannah Xu | |
| News Photo | Honorable Mention | Granite Bay High School — The Gazette | Every 15 Minutes (bottom center) | Surina Khurana | Human emotion is always compelling and this one is chock full of it. Great composition, too. |
| Feature Photo | 1st | Granite Bay High School — The Gazette | GBHS winter sports season begins | Carissa Lewis | Great action shot mixed with fan energy. The photographer captured the moment. |
| Feature Photo | Honorable Mention | Granite Bay High School — The Gazette | Santas | Carissa Lewis | A very nice angle that draws the viewer into the photo. Ties in well with the topic. |
| Online General Excellence | Honorable Mention | Granite Bay High School — The Gazette | granitebaytoday.org | Staff | |
| General Excellence | 1st | Granite Bay High School — The Gazette | November and December 2016 | Staff | |
| Profile Feature Story | 1st | Harvard-Westlake School — The Chronicle | Seeing Red; Faded Innocence; Seeking Safety | Jesse Nadel and Jean Sanders, Danielle Spitz, Danielle Kaye | A fascinating series of stories about a wide array of current issues. “Faded Innocence” is the best in the group, and a unique way to do profiles. It also shows the reality that going to a highly regarded academic school does not make the issues any different. “Seeing Red” put an interesting perspective on national politics — and California politics. “Seeking Safety” put a personal touch on an issue at the heart and soul of the political debate in America. All well done. |
| Photo Illustration | Honorable Mention | Harvard-Westlake School — The Chronicle | When Tourism Meets Terrorism | Eshanika Chaudhary | |
| Photo Illustration | 1st | Harvard-Westlake School — The Chronicle | Faded Innocence | Josie Abugov and Alena Rubin | |
| Photo Illustration | 2nd | Harvard-Westlake School — The Chronicle | Students with Dual Citizenship | Eshanika Chaudhary | |
| Illustration | Honorable Mention | Harvard-Westlake School — The Chronicle | Injured Students, Third Party, Pokemon Go | Kitty Luo and Alena Rubin, Kitty Luo, Alena Rubin and Nicole Kim | |
| Sports Action Photo | 1st | Harvard-Westlake School — The Chronicle | Soccer, Wrestling, Swimming, Field Hockey | Elly Choi, Pavan Tauh, Juliana Berger, Aaron Park | The photo from a field hockey match is a very solid action shot of competitors going after the ball — sharp, focused and very colorful. It’s also well played on the page, large and displaying that vibrant color. |
| Online General Excellence | 1st | Harvard-Westlake School — The Chronicle | hwchronicle.com | Bryant Wu, Cameron Stine | |
| General Excellence | 2nd | Harvard-Westlake School — The Chronicle | Oct. 4 and Nov. 21, 2016 | Staff | |
| Best Columns | Honorable Mention | Humboldt State University — The Lumberjack | Witness at Standing Rock | Phillip Santos | Powerful personal narrative about a timely and explosive issue. Could have used a trim on some of the smaller details as the middle started to drag. Could have provided more context, why the author was there, what it all means, etc. |
| Best Columns | 2nd | Las Positas College — Express | That’s How I Roll | Ian Jones | |
| Photo Illustration | Honorable Mention | Las Positas College — Express | Reality vs. Virtual Reality | Jennifer Snook and Jeremy Juian | Interesting way to help readers experience the game. |
| General Excellence | 2nd | Loyola Marymount University — Los Angeles Loyolan | March 30 and April 6, 2016 | Staff | Good, clean layout. Writing is strong, but could be stronger if quotes could be moved further up in the story. I recommend a good quote by the third paragraph to draw the reader quickly (after a strong lede) to keep them reading. Nice photography, but feature all photos with the size they deserve. Sports photography could use tighter cropping and enlarge them. If it’s a sports action photo, I recommend having the ball in the photo. Good balance of sports and living/arts coverage. Some very nice graphics work, but overall design spotty. A tendency toward opinion rather than news. |
| Enterprise News Story or Series | 1st | Monta Vista High School — El Estoque | Inside the Chat | Trisha Kholiya, ZaZu Lippert, Priya Reddy | Well done. I applaud the topic choice on this and being willing to delve into an important subject. Well written. |
| Enterprise News Story or Series | 2nd | Monta Vista High School — El Estoque | Immune Together | Karen Sanchez, Hannan Waliullah, Jessica Xing | Very well written, and a tough subject to tackle for a student paper. Nice job. |
| Enterprise News Story or Series | Honorable Mention | Monta Vista High School — El Estoque | Taking the High Road | Ilena Peng | Well written. |
| Best Writing | Honorable Mention | Monta Vista High School — El Estoque | A Lost City | Avni Prasad | |
| Profile Feature Story | Honorable Mention | Monta Vista High School — El Estoque | Old but Gold | Anjini Venugopal, Himani Yalamaddi | A well-written piece that gets to the heart of a relevant issue in today’s society. The writing reflects this category well. |
| Best Sports Game Story | Honorable Mention | Monta Vista High School — El Estoque | Basketball: Teams face off against Cupertino HS | Karen Ma, Aditya Pimplaskar | |
| Illustration | Honorable Mention | Monta Vista High School — El Estoque | Trees killed in Academic Quad | Elizabeth Han | |
| News Photo | 2nd | Monta Vista High School — El Estoque | Trump protest | Karen Sanchez | An interesting perspective from the march rather than “of” the march. I like the perspective created by the fuzzy foreground too. |
| Feature Photo | 2nd | Monta Vista High School — El Estoque | Drama Production | Justin Kim | Very interesting effect. The lack of contrast is incidental because the photographer grabs your attention without it. |
| Feature Photo | Honorable Mention | Monta Vista High School — El Estoque | Dance team homecoming | Ilena Peng | Tells a lot about what’s going on. Good indoor shot. |
| Sports Action Photo | 2nd | Monta Vista High School — El Estoque | Boy’s Basketball layup | Om Khandekar | Excellent color action shot taken from a distance that shows a lot of emotion and effort from throughout the gymnasium. |
| Sports Action Photo | Honorable Mention | Monta Vista High School — El Estoque | Baseball MVHS over the shoulder | Pranav Iyer | Nice clear picture of the baseball pitcher warming up with the catcher taken from behind the plate. |
| Online General Excellence | 2nd | Monta Vista High School — El Estoque | Beyond the Ballot | Staff | |
| News Photo | 2nd | Orange Coast College — Coast Report | Trump Rally | Zach Boetto | Theres a lot of visual variety going on here. It had potential to place higher but the digital noise limited it. The photograph easily conveys the situation despite difficult lighting. |
| General Excellence | 1st | Orange Coast College — Coast Report | May 4 and 11, 2016 | Coast Report Staff | Good mix of news, features, sports. Excellent photo coverage & design on the Trump protest. Opinion page has good mix of lively topics. |
| Profile Feature Story | Honorable Mention | San Jose City College — The Times | SJCC alumna makes history | Patrick Loera | Good story with a lot of facts in well written story. Stayed on point. |
| Profile Feature Story | 2nd | San Jose City College — The Times | President of the Jaguars speaks out | Melissa Maria Martinez | Nice tight story with good quotes. The reporter does a good job explaining the new president’s background, attitude, and influences, and handles the subject of women in leadership roles with confidence and grace. |
| Best Sports Game Story | Honorable Mention | San Jose City College — The Times | Football team stumbles out of the gate | Ivan Cruz | Great story. This writer has a lot of potential. |
| Photo Illustration | 2nd | San Jose City College — The Times | Administrators map | Patrick Jenkins and Miguel Norona | Impressive use of photos and graphics to give a lot of information in a reader-friendly manner. |
| Illustration | Honorable Mention | San Jose City College — The Times | Fisher mid scheme | Patrick Jenkins | Creative. Concept is well executed. |
| Enterprise News Story or Series | Honorable Mention | Santa Ana College — El Don | Homeless Veterans | R. Nicanor Santana | Solid story. A solid interview and a nice recitation of facts relating to the vet’s issues. |
| Enterprise News Story or Series | Honorable Mention | Santa Ana College — El Don | Religion Among Millennials | Noemi Mosqueda | Nicely written. |
| Best Writing | 2nd | Santa Ana College — El Don | Vaporwave | Timothy Bravo | You can hear the music in the writer’s words and phrases. There was effective use of rhythm and four dimensionality. This story was told with an obvious passion for the subject matter in a way that engages the reader unfamiliar with the music genre. |
| Best Writing | Honorable Mention | Santa Ana College — El Don | Freedom Fighter | Laura O. Garcia | |
| Profile Feature Story | Honorable Mention | Santa Ana College — El Don | Desert Biology | Jose Servin | Nice imagery, composition and photos. |
| Best Sports Game Story | 2nd | Santa Ana College — El Don | Dons Shoot Falcons | Jorge Campos | Nice work! Well written. |
| Best Columns | 1st | Santa Ana College — El Don | Under Pressure | Meghan Kliewer | Both “Under Pressure” and “Girl Power” read well and look great. Great subject matter and layout and super use of the phone regarding its interaction to the story and content of what’s seen on the phone. |
| Illustration | 1st | Santa Ana College — El Don | Summer of Hate | Nino Tanabe | Nice. Great colors. Powerful message. |
| News Photo | 1st | Santa Ana College — El Don | Campus Arrest | Jorge Campos | There’s some technical problems with this image (blown out background), but the composition leads the eye to the suspect’s reaction. The photographer has done a good job of conveying action and emotion. |
| Feature Photo | 2nd | Santa Ana College — El Don | Cosplay: Dragon Age | Christabelle Blake | Beautiful depth of field and focus on the subjects in the photo. Captures their characters as well as their personalities. |
| Online General Excellence | Honorable Mention | Santa Ana College — El Don | eldonnews.org | Staff | Easy-to-follow design from top to bottom. There’s a great deal of variety in story type and layout, but the business doesn’t overwhelm. The print edition cover looks very strong at top right of page. Only criticism is that it appears stories are living too long on the site (I see numerous posts from November). The writing quality is good, but it seems some sections get more coverage than others — a few have two or fewer pieces of content from this year. The last video upload appears to have been in September. Story selection is good, but should cover a wider range of topics. The layout is great, very well organized. |
| Enterprise News Story or Series | Honorable Mention | Santa Clara University — The Santa Clara | Strictly Platonic: Finding Friends Online and Invisible Injury | Summer Meza, Brendan Weber | Both stories were very interesting but I was captivated by the Summer Meza’s work on the intersection of loneliness and online interactions. This was an examination of a group that I have never seen before. It was extremely compelling and I found no fault with the narrative, compelling characters and a point that says more about society at-large than I think anyone might expect. Great job Summer. |
| Best Sports Game Story | Honorable Mention | Santa Clara University — The Santa Clara | Santa Clara Stifles Stanford and Women’s Soccer Faces Reality Check | Andrew Slap | |
| Best Columns | Honorable Mention | Santa Clara University — The Santa Clara | The Big Short: The Most Important Film Of The Year and I Deserve to Be Here | John Flynn, Perla Luna, Sophie Mattson | This well-written piece is part movie review, part commentary on social-economic issues. The review is a good device for explaining the current state of the economy, though the summary of the movie could have been condensed. |
| Online General Excellence | 1st | Skyline College — The Skyline View | theskylineview.com | Staff | Clean home page layout, with clever categories that engage reader: “Focal Point,” “Artistic License,” etc. Embedded Twitter and Flickr feed are a nice touch. The breadth of the coverage is astounding, with sections for just about everything, most of which are active (though Viewpoint and Satire seem like they haven’t been updated in a year or more). The writing is great across all sections. The homepage and section page layouts are fantastic, with plenty of art and good organization. Wide variety of multimedia available, not just videos, though not much in individual stories. Drop-down menus are great (just check spelling of Wrestling under Sports). |
| Enterprise News Story or Series | 2nd | Southwestern College — The Sun | Racism charges rise again | Bianca Quilantan | |
| General Excellence | 2nd | Southwestern College — The Sun | Nov. 29 and Dec. 14, 2016 | The Sun Staff | |
| Enterprise News Story or Series | 2nd | UC Berkeley — The Daily Californian | UC Berkeley sexual misconduct cases and administrative response | Staff | This was far and away some of the best work I read in this category. The compelling narrative was reinforced with data culled from the 400 pages of university records. My one critique is that the lede on the Tyann Sorrell story was written very circuitously. When it comes to the lede, I would as an editor have opted for something more straightforward. |
| Profile Feature Story | 1st | UC Berkeley — The Daily Californian | The Come Up: Ivan Rabb stays true to Oakland | Winston Cho | This story has everything you want in a profile: a deep understanding of the individual, set securely in his time and place. This entry wins for the depth of its reporting and ambition, and the more sophisticated theme of Rabb’s ties to Oakland. Story would have benefitted from tighter writing and a tighter focus. |
| Illustration | 2nd | UC Berkeley — The Daily Californian | Gene Wilder | Willow Yang | |
| News Photo | Honorable Mention | UC Berkeley — The Daily Californian | Thousands attend fiery anti-Donald Trump protest in Oakland | Mikael Raphael | You can feel the oppression of the protesters in this photo as they are surrounded by a sea of cops in dark clothing. The protesters themselves huddle in a pool of color and light in the middle. The photographer had to be int he thick of this to get the action and desperation of the protesters. Good use of lighting and composition; there’s an artistic, Rembrandt quality. |
| Sports Action Photo | 2nd | UC Berkeley — The Daily Californian | Tre Watson | If More than 3 names type: Staff | |
| Online General Excellence | 2nd | UC Berkeley — The Daily Californian | dailycal.org | Staff | This was a close runner up to first. Would like to see a bit more photo play than ad play. Otherwise, well done, visually appealing and informative. |
| General Excellence | 1st | UC Berkeley — The Daily Californian | Nov. 9 and 10, 2016 | Staff | Overall, well done. Good writing, good photography, clean, effective layout. Comprehensive, well written and photographed news coverage with attention to design. Good mix of news, sports and features. A concern that opinion was not clearly marked as such in some cases. But a welcome preference for news coverage over opinion. |
| Illustration | Honorable Mention | UC Santa Barbara-The Daily Nexus | Getting Closer to God in I.V. | Peyton Stotelmyre | |
| Enterprise News Story or Series | 1st | UCLA — Daily Bruin | Caring for the Caregivers | Shreya Aiyar, Miriam Bribiesca, Daniel Alcazar | The field in this form does not allow enough words to laud the work that these journalists have done in tackling an incredibly nuanced issue that has broad impacts on future patients and the lives of these physicians. I not only commend the intensive first-person journalism evident here, and the likely hundreds of hours it took to produce this, but the layout and presentation of the project. I hope to hire one of you someday. |
| Best Writing | 1st | UCLA — Daily Bruin | Student musician captures momentary emotions with R&B, verse | Shreya Aiyar | A vivid and intriguing narrative lead moves quickly to a nut graph. The striving to succeed comes through. A strong ending with a surprise or catchy summation would have helped. There are some really elegant turns of phrase in the story: “a tune would tangle itself around his thoughts” was particularly powerful. The key is to ensure that they don’t become too noticeable and overbearing, and I think the writer accomplishes that. |
| Profile Feature Story | 2nd | UCLA — Daily Bruin | Paralympian Blake Leeper forges path to Rio on Drake Stadium track | Matthew Joye | Clear, clean writing with a subject that had more nuance and difficult material to deal with than some of the athlete profiles. |
| Best Columns | 1st | UCLA — Daily Bruin | The Dam Truth | TuAnh Dam | Good use of the “open letter” device to get the point across. Personal and compelling, a well-written piece on a topical subject. TuAnh Dam’s columns stood out for their straightforward, compelling writing. In her Trump column, Dam takes a national news story and makes it personal — and relatable — for students on her campus. Both columns in this entry tackle sports-related issues with larger societal implications. Dam’s opinions are clear, and her arguments are compelling. |
| Best Columns | 2nd | UCLA — Daily Bruin | Daily Bruin Opinion columns | Daily Bruin Opinion Staff | A well-argued piece on a niche subject. Could have done better to explain how this issue impacts average students. This entry impressed with columns about local issues that affect UCLA students. Both Ghoogasian and Campbell tackled complicated topics, unraveling the complexities and explaining why students should care. Both columnists had a firm grasp of the details, and both made persuasive arguments for their points of view. |
| Photo Illustration | 2nd | UCLA — Daily Bruin | Two UCLA alumni headline as Kristoff in live production of ’Frozen’ | Jennifer Hu, Harish Balasubramani | Love the whimsy and spirit of this image. It works because it’s a feature profile and looks magazine-ready. |
| Photo Illustration | 1st | UCLA — Daily Bruin | Unmasking mental health: Eren Ng | Efren Piñon | An effective approach to a difficult-to-illustrate subject. |
| Illustration | 1st | UCLA — Daily Bruin | Caring for the caregivers | Devin Le | |
| Illustration | Honorable Mention | UCLA — Daily Bruin | Political science professors weigh in on presidential election | Justin Ma | |
| News Photo | 2nd | UCLA — Daily Bruin | Students protest Trump victory early Wednesday morning | Jintak Han | This is a dynamic photo that takes a protest shot to the next level. The composition and lighting pulls the eye directly to the man in front and the anger on his face. The lines in in the street also serve to draw the eyes along the photo. Many protest photos take on an almost generic look of a crowd and police. This one shows the emotion of one person, while also giving a good sense of crowd and place |
| News Photo | 1st | UCLA — Daily Bruin | Bruins United sails past Waves of Change in 2016 USAC election | Aubrey Yeo | What a moment of pure joy captured here. The photographer did a strong job of showing the moment, the three main subjects in the foreground expressing victory among a sea of other students. The composition draws the viewer from the main subject to the two men interacting with him. This photo stood out because it captured a special moment and the interaction among the three subjects. They are laughing and the photo tells that story so well that the observer wants to join in the celebration. |
| Feature Photo | 2nd | UCLA — Daily Bruin | Dancing to heal | Tehya Faulk | It’s hard to pull off a mirror photo effectively, but it makes sense here and it works well. He’s a dancer, so the setting in a studio with a wide mirror is relevant to the subject at hand, and the caption—and his intense expression—suggest he is introspective and self-reflective, teaching youth based on his own past experience, so it works on a metaphorical level too. |
| Feature Photo | 1st | UCLA — Daily Bruin | Cracking the Gender Code | Miriam Bribiesca, Austin Yu | This photo helps communicate what the story is about in a more visually interesting way than a straight portrait. She’s actively working on her computer, but that’s a hard action shot; the reflection of computer code tells the viewer/reader right away what the story is about, and catches your eye. Good use of projecting codes on Apurva Panse’s face to visually tell the story. |
| Sports Action Photo | Honorable Mention | UCLA — Daily Bruin | UCLA gymnastics triumphs over Utah with thrilling comeback routines | Angie Wang | |
| Online General Excellence | 1st | UCLA — Daily Bruin | dailybruin.com | Daily Bruin Staff | A great looking website. Clean, easy to read and visually appealing. A lot of information, but not crammed and ads are spread out well. |
| Enterprise News Story or Series | Honorable Mention | University of La Verne — The Campus Times | Fighting the Status Quo | Emily Lau | That was a really strong lede. Very nice. I also liked the subtlety with which you introduced the inherent sexism of the community. Cheers for subtle writing! This was a very interesting look at this issue. The one question I had was whether men and women game for the same reasons? My only other critique is that I would have liked an explanation about how you enterprised this story: you knew someone; you game; just an idle question you had; etc. |
| General Excellence | Honorable Mention | University of La Verne — The Campus Times | April 29 and May 6, 2016 | Staff | Overall, good use of quotes and well placed in stories. Layout is fairly clean. Photos are sparse, but the ones used are handled well in the layout. Try some tighter cropping in your photography, especially with sports. |
