Mustang News brings home 14 awards at national convention

Mustang News Staff Report
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Mustang News had quite the weekend in Philadelphia.

Named finalists in the design, photo, online, advertising and sports categories of the 2014 College Media Association (CMA) Pinnacle Awards and Associated College Press (ACP) Awards, Mustang News attended both awards ceremonies in Philadelphia on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 as part of the 93rd Annual ACP/CMA National College Media Convention.

Editor-in-chief Jacob Lauing and managing editor Kayla Missman represented the staff, bringing home 14 awards.

“I think on a day-to-day basis we have a pretty solid idea of how great our content is,” Lauing said. “But bringing home that many awards just confirms the fact that we truly have one of the most talented college media staffs in the country.”

Mustang News’ most notable hardware of the weekend was the ACP Online Pacemaker — considered by many to be the highest honor in college media. Formerly known as “Best of the Net,” the evaluation of the recipient is based on design, ease of navigation, writing and editing, graphics and interactivity.

This is Mustang News’ fourth Pacemaker, and since its first, the evolution of the newsroom has changed. Former managing editor Ryan Chartrand was the first to hold the position of Online News Editor in 2005.

“For the first year, I was the guy in the corner who did ‘the website stuff,’ and by the time I left in my third year, Web and New Media had become a new track within the department (much thanks to Brady Teufel for championing those efforts as well) and the online news editor had finally become a well-respected role,” Chartrand wrote in an email.

He was also on staff for Mustang News’ first Pacemaker, which brought a new light on how the newsroom and journalism department looks at spreading content.

“After the Pacemaker, the journalism department really started to transform and start accepting that the web was going to be important and couldn’t be ignored anymore,” Chartrand said. “That yes, breaking news online before print is actually not the end of the world. And if it takes a plaque to convince people of that, so be it. I was just proud to see change finally start happening after that.”

Assistant journalism professor Brady Teufel is the current and first online adviser for Mustang News. He worked alongside Chartrand and has seen the website evolve within the last nine years.

“The website has evolved from a place to simply host content that’s already in the newspaper to its current iteration as a place to publish up-to-date information, experiment with innovative storytelling forms and leverage social networking to build a wider audience and engage the Cal Poly community,” Teufel said.

Cal Poly’s Learn By Doing philosophy has contributed to journalism students’ ability to produce award-winning content. Through classes and working in the newsroom, students learn what it takes to create quality content and adjust to the changing field of journalism.

“All of our classes are structured to produce quality journalism and public relations,” journalism department chair Mary Glick said. “A lot of attention is paid to Mustang News; I think that the kind of faculty involvement and student interest really drives excellence in what we produce in all platforms: website, social media, broadcast and print.”

To evolve, students need to experiment with new storytelling forms and cultivate attention to detail, which has made it possible to reach this level of honor, Teufel said. The team’s “sky’s-the-limit” mentality in conjunction with core journalism skills puts Mustang News ahead of the curve.

Complete list of awards:

CMA Pinnacle Awards

• Advertising
  • 1st place – Best Social Media Strategy
• Design
  • 1st place – Best Online Infographic
    • Paige Cross
• Online
  • 1st place – Best Multimedia Feature Story
    • J.J. Jenkins, Carly Rickards, Jefferson Nolan and Ian Billings
  • 3rd place – Best Social Media Presence
    • Hannah Croft and Rachel Sun
• Photo
  • 1st place – Best Breaking News Photo
    • Morgan Butler
  • 1st place – Best Portrait
    • Ian Billings
• Sports
  • 2nd – Best Sports Game Story
    • Jacob Lauing, Stephan Teodosescu, J.J. Jenkins, Ian Billings
  • Honorable Mention – Best Sports Section

ACP (Associated College Press)

• Advertising
  • House Ad
    • 2nd place – Nicole Bergman
    • 4th place – Joe Hewison

• Ad/Editorial Supplement
  • 4th place – Melanie Lapovich
• Brochure/Rate Card
  • Honorable mention – Albert Chang

• Story of the Year
  • Editorial/Opinion
    • Honorable mention – Mustang News Editorial Board
• Best of Show
  • Multimedia Package
    • Sean McMinn, Leah Horner
  • Special Edition
  • Website Large School
• 2014 Online Pacemaker
  • Newspaper 10,001-20,000 enrollment