The Record named Midwest’s best college broadsheet newspaper

02/20/2008

Stop the presses! The Record, the newspaper of the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University, was honored as the Midwest’s best college broadsheet newspaper at the Associated Collegiate Press’ 17th annual Best of the Midwest College Newspaper Convention Feb. 17 at the Hilton Hotel, Minneapolis.

The Record’s Feb. 7 issue was judged “Best of Show” in the college broadsheet competition. Newspapers from Truman State University and North Dakota State University ranked second and third, respectively, in the competition.

Professional journalists judged newspapers for the quality of writing, photos, layout and design, ads and editing. The Record has a staff of 17 editors and about two dozen other students who are involved in the production of the paper. The Record received second place in the “Best of Show” contest in 2007.

The Record also received four individual awards at the convention. They included:

• Jessica Handwerk (CSB senior, art and communication double major, Woodbury, Minn.) and Emily Pearson (CSB senior, communication major, New Ulm, Minn.): First place for best single page design.
• Kelly Smith (CSB senior, communication and English double major, Lakeville, Minn.) Third place for best feature story.
• Handwerk: Fourth place for best news photo. 
• John F. O’Sullivan (SJU senior, communication major, Mankato, Minn.): Fifth place for best news story.

Approximately 300 students and advisors attended the Feb. 15-17 conference.

“This (award) just goes to show that even though we don’t have a journalism program here at CSB and SJU, we can compete against these larger schools that have more resources because of our skills, commitment and passion to maintain high quality journalism and produce a newspaper that we and the entire CSB/SJU community can take pride in,” said Smith, the editor in chief of The Record.