The Orion Again Wins Prestigious Pacemaker
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 6, 1997
Dave Waddell, Orion Faculty Adviser
530-898-4782
The Orion Again Wins Prestigious Pacemaker
The Orion, Chico State University’s student newspaper, has won the national Pacemaker award, the biggest prize in college journalism, for the third straight year. The Chico State weekly has now accumulated four Pacemakers in the last five years–more than any other college or university newspaper of any sort during that period.
“The Pacemaker is the most prestigious award in college journalism,” said Dave Waddell, The Orion’s faculty adviser. “Winning it more times than anyone since 1993 has put Chico State and its journalism department on the map nationally in a big way. It’s an extraordinary achievement by our students.”
The Orion was presented with the Pacemaker at the Associated Collegiate Press’ annual college media convention Oct. 30 through Nov. 2 at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers. The Chico State weekly also won top awards at the convention for its on-line edition and for the quality of an issue produced during the current semester.
This year’s Pacemaker was for general excellence during the Fall 1996 and Spring 1997 semesters. The Orion was one of 10 university papers competing in the non-daily category to receive the coveted award. Winners were selected from 20 finalists by a panel of judges led by Margaret Holt of the Chicago Tribune.
Current Orion Managing Editor Matt Notley accepted the Pacemaker on behalf of last year’s staff. Tom Rolnicki, the ACP’s executive director, described the Pacemaker during the Nov. 1 awards ceremony as “the Pulitzer Prize of college journalism.” Pacemaker awards are based on a newspaper’s coverage and content, writing and editing, layout and design, photography and graphics, and leadership.
The Orion has won five Pacemakers all together–in academic years 1988-89, 1992-93, 1994-95, 1995-96, and 1996-97. During the 96-97 school year, Traci Moon and Joelle Babula were managing editors, Josh Rege and Brantley Payne were art directors, and Waddell was faculty adviser.
In Chicago, Orion Online, the World Wide Web version of the newspaper, won third place overall among college electronic newspapers in the 1997 ACP/Hot Wired “Best of the Net” competition, finishing behind only the University of Arizona and Michigan State University.
Also at the Chicago convention, The Orion took third place in the Best of Show on-site competition for non-daily university “broadsheet” newspapers based on general excellence for one issue from the fall semester.
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