Spinnaker has been recognized as one of the nation’s top student-run media news organizations after being awarded a Pacemaker Award by the Associated Collegiate Press in results announced Monday at the National College Media Convention in Atlanta.
Serving the University of North Florida since 1977, Spinnaker is the only student-run news organization at a four-year campus in Florida to win the award this year.
The Pacemaker Awards are unofficially known as the Pulitzer Prize of student journalism, and Spinnaker last won the online award in 2013, according to ACP records.
“The Pacemaker is the association’s preeminent award,” ACP Executive Director Laura Widmer said. “ACP is honored to recognize the best of the best.”
The Associated Collegiate Press is comprised of a national community of collegiate journalists and collegiate journalism advisers, according to their website. Recognizing excellence in U.S. student journalism, the ACP has been awarding Pacemakers since 1927.
“Today’s best online sites are platforms for rich multimedia storytelling,” said Gary Lundgren, ACP associate director and coordinator of the Pacemaker competition. “Deep and diverse coverage with strong engagement and interactivity distinguish the best student-produced sites.”
There were 45 finalists for this year’s Online Pacemaker Award, which recognized student-run organizations from 21 states.
In total, Spinnaker was among 18 online news organizations at four-year universities across America to win the Online Pacemaker Award. Two student-run news organizations at two-year universities also won the award.
Winners of the Online Pacemaker award among four-year universities include the following, according to the final results:
- Daily Forty-Niner at California State University, Long Beach
- Los Angeles Loyolan at Loyola Marymount University
- Daily Bruin at UCLA
- The State Hornet at Sacramento State University
- Golden Gate Xpress at San Francisco State University
- Spinnaker at the University of North Florida
- The Daily Iowan at the University of Iowa
- The Michigan Daily at the University of Michigan
- The State News at Michigan State University
- The Ithacan at Ithaca College
- NYCity News Service at City University of New York
- The Chronicle at Duke University
- Elon News Network at Elon University
- OU Daily at the University of Oklahoma
- Daily Emerald at the University of Oregon
- The Daily Gamecock at the University of South Carolina
- The Shorthorn at the University of Texas at Arlington
- The Daily Texan at the University of Texas
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