SIUE’s Alestle Wins National College Journalism Award
The Alestle, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s student newspaper, won a national award during the 94th annual Associated Collegiate Press (ACP) / College Media Advisers National College Media Convention in Austin, Texas.
The Alestle placed fourth in the ACP Best Of Show — Newspaper Special Edition category for its 2015 Back-to-School Survival Guide. The field was wide open and not broken down by school size or frequency. All schools and their news organizations competed in the same category.
Criteria included the topic of the special issue, quality and quantity of coverage, overall design, photos and quantity of ads.
Editor-in-Chief Mady O’Reilly accepted the award on behalf of the entire staff. Lifestyles Editor Caitlin Lally, Sports Editor Dani Wilson, Graphics Manager Lauren Lowe and Program Director Tammy Merrett also attended.
The Alestle competed against many collegiate newspapers such at the Arizona Daily Wildcat at the University of Arizona, The Pendulum at Elon University in North Carolina, the Tulane Hullabaloo at Tulane University in New Orleans, the Mustang News at California Polytechnic State University, The Auburn Plainsman at Auburn University in Alabama, The Shorthorn at the University of Texas-Arlington, the University Press at Florida Atlantic University, Flor-Ala at the University of North Alabama and The All State at Austin Peay State University in Tennessee.
“This year’s award in the ACP Best of Show competition for The Alestle is particularly sweet,” Merrett said. “We never expected to win and were very happy, especially since the staff we had at the conference all contributed to the work that was honored.
“We were competing against large and small schools, schools with daily newspapers and schools that only publish a couple of times a month, schools with full-fledged journalism programs and those with small mass communications programs. So, the fact that we stood out in such a wide field is a great honor and testament to the hard work that the staff puts into its newspaper.”
The Alestle has placed several times in recent years in national Best of Show competitions at the fall national college media convention in the four-year weekly tabloid, large school website and special edition categories. The publication has been a recent American Scholastic Press winner and regularly wins awards in the annual Illinois College Press Association contest.
For more information about The Alestle, contact Program Director Tammy Merrett at 618-650-3597 or 314-780-0159.
