ACP News & Notes

View the finalists list with screen captures and links

College newspapers everywhere are harnessing the power of the internet and new multimedia technologies to produce an eye-catching, accessible way to synthesize the news. ACP received 155 entries for the 2008 Online Pacemaker contest, ranging from Daily newspapers to Feature magazines. The 2008 Online Pacemaker judge was Will Sullivan, an award-winning Interactive Director of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. A graduate of Medill School of Journalism and the Poynter Institute, Will has worked with more than a dozen news organizations from Sydney, Australia to Toledo, Ohio in roles from photographer to Editor in Chief. His blog, Journerdism, is also a staple of the media blogging community. His complete comments on the finalists and winners are below. – Marisa Dobson

Wow.

Just wow.

I’m so encouraged to see all the excellent work being done at college papers across the country. I’m even more encouraged that it’s not just at the traditional ‘big name’ journalism schools.

Congratulations to all of the finalists and Pacemakers. This was probably the most difficult contest for me to judge in two years. The quality, design, depth, breadth and timeliness of content being produced at these college publications rivals and sometimes beats that of most ‘professional’ media outlets.

I was highly encouraged to see many papers producing podcasts, multimedia, blogs, forums and breaking news on their websites. Please continue this growth!

Along with that, I’d encourage exploring the following:

• Better blogging. Blogs are used at many outlets, but not to the level I would have expected, and many times not with a tone that embraces the opportunity blogs offer to present engaging personalities, discussion with the community and linking to other content. Inverted pyramid has no place in a blog. Blogs must be updated regularly.
• Social media is an undeniable strength in college media because you and your audience has all grown up with and use MySpace, Facebook, Digg, etc… Explore that in your media pursuits! Just like there was a recent rush for everyone to do video, I believe the next major ‘buzz’ job will be social media experts at news organizations and not enough college papers seem to be experimenting in this beyond offering the College Publisher template for social bookmarking articles.
• Data and mapping is another avenue I didn’t see explored nearly as much as it should be. Any journalist that specializes in this in college learns many valuable skills and if you do some awesome work, you’re guaranteeing yourself a job. I was encouraged to see some publications, such as the Collegiate Times at Virginia Tech and the California State University, Sacramento are on the bandwagon. Keep up the great work!
• Mobile tools seem to be very few and far between in college publications, and just like social media, this generation – your audience – lives through mobile content. Embrace and innovate!
• Convergence seems to be catching on. I was encouraged by several papers that are building and using convergence relationships with other student media outlets, such as the University of Illinois’ Daily Illini and George Mason’s Connect Mason. I highly, highly encourage this, if done right it’ll be mutually beneficial to all publications.
• Break more news online. Yes, it’s a different workflow, but mandatory in the new media age.
• Improve the web designs. College publisher is a cool, turn-key content management system, but don’t be afraid to try new things or modify their templates. There are hundreds of options out there and I would like to see more publications using more innovative CMS options or at least customizing the designs more so it feels less like a printed newspaper slapped on a screen. Among the Pacemaker finalists, San Francisco State’s Golden Gate [X]Press‘ design is a breath of fresh air and Ithaca College’s The Ithacan is simply gorgeous.

Again, these are just suggestions to keep the excellence flowing; the garden is never finished. Congratulations again to all the winners. I love that so many of these entries prove that circulation doesn’t matter — just as the Lawrence Journal World proves in the professional media — awesome web journalism can be done at any size publication. Daily, weekly or quarterly, whatever.

My final thought goes out to all the leaders and advisers of college publications, as well as the student members:

EXPERIMENT!

College is one of the few times in your career that you can try something totally wacky, fail and it won’t really set you back or ruin your career. Try alternative story forms. Learn new technologies. Break the mold of traditional journalism. Your generation and its ability to innovate will save the craft. I’m encouraged to see the progress you’ve made thus far and can’t wait to see what you do in the future.

Cheers,

Will Sullivan

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