NEW YORK, NY – On March 20, 2009 the Columbia Scholastic Press Association announced its top awards for scholastic publications at the 85th annual Scholastic Convention. This year 1,795 magazines, newspapers, yearbooks and online publications of the current CSPA members were eligible to enter the Crown Awards. Judging for printed publications took place at Columbia University from December 13-15, 2008 by the Board of Crown Judges. Publications were judged on writing/editing, design, content, concept, photography, art and graphics. Online news media were judged at Columbia in February 2009.

Nine magazines, 20 newspapers, four online newspapers, and 13 yearbooks received Gold Crown Awards while 62 other publications received the second highest CSPA award, known as the Silver Crown. Gold Crowns have been presented annually since 1982, and Silver Crowns have been given since 1984.

Crown Awards are also given to college publications.
The CSPA announced its top awards for collegiate publications at the 31st annual College Media Convention, which took place at The Marriott Marquis Times Square, West 45th Street and Broadway Avenue, New York City on Saturday, March 15th.   [Source: CSPA]

WSPN and the Gold Crown Award

In a year when major print publications are collapsing and online media are thriving, Wayland Student Press of WSPN has become a 2009 winner for Gold Crown Award, a prestigious journalism award given by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) from Columbia University.

As stated on the CSPA’s website, Crown Awards are “the highest recognition given by the CSPA to a student print or online medium for overall excellence.”

This year is the first time the CSPA has presented Crown Awards to online media. Since their inception in 1982, Crown Awards have been given only to student print publications.

Unlike any other Crown recipients, WSPN was founded less than two years ago exclusively for online publishing. Therefore, receiving the Gold Crown Award is a landmark achievement for WSPN. Other recipients for the Online Crown Awards have been established for years, relying on their schools’ journalism courses and print publications from the start. WSPN’s success has brought a new journalism course to Wayland High School this school year.

Every other high school publication receiving an Online Crown Award puts articles on their websites that have been previously published in their print editions or other publications within their school community. Wayland Student Press is unique in that it does not have a print edition, publishing content first and only on the web.  [Source: WSPN]

Gold Circle Awards 2009

In addition to Crown Awards, Gold Circle Awards are offered by the CSPA to recognize superior work by student journalists usually as individuals but sometimes as an entire staff working with either print or online media.

For 2009 Gold Circle Awards, a total of 12,037 entries were submitted for 243 categories.

Like Crown Awards, this year is the first time the CSPA has presented Gold Circle Awards to online-related categories. For the inaugural series of Gold Circle Awards in online categories, WSPN Editor-in-Chief, Web Architect, and Founder Robin Kim made first place for “News Online Design Web site.”

First Place – Robin Kim
WSPN, Wayland HS, Wayland, MA
Gold Circle Awards for 2009
News Online Design Web site for Online media
2nd Place – Staff, The Paly Voice, Palo Alto HS, Palo Alto, CA;
3rd Place – Staff, HiLite, Carmel HS, Carmel, IN;
CM. Ryan Bowden, Statesman, Lincoln HS, Sioux Falls, SD;
CM. Alexia Boyarsky & Andrew Lee,
The Chronicle, Harvard-Westlake School, N. Hollywood, CA;
CM. Staff, The Black & White, Walt Whitman HS, Bethesda, MD.

Awards Convocation

The Awards Convocation took place in the Arledge Auditorium, Lerner Hall, located at Columbia’s historic Morningside Heights campus, on Friday, March 20th at 2:30 p.m.

Edmund J. Sullivan announced the winners while C. Bruce Watterson presented plaques to those winners attending the event. Sullivan is executive director of professional prizes at the Graduate School of Journalism and executive director of the CSPA. Watterson, educator and consultant, (Rome, GA) is chair of the Columbia Scholastic Press Advisers Association’s (CSPAA) Committee on Judging Standards and Practices.  [Source: CSPA]

About CSPA

The Columbia Scholastic Press Association is an international student press association uniting student journalists and faculty advisers at schools and colleges through educational conferences, idea exchanges and award programs. The CSPA is owned by Columbia University since 1925 and operated as a program affliated with its Graduate School of Journalism.  [Source: CSPA]

About The Judging Panel

The judging panel for Crown Awards 2009 included:
Jennifer Johnson Hicks, online editor, wsj.com (Wall Street Journal online), New York, NY; Leah Bailey, associate art director, Cigar Aficionado magazine, New York, NY; Peter Bobkowski, instructor and former adviser, Chapel Hill, NC; Bobby Hawthorne, author and former director of ILPC, Austin, TX; Monica Hill, director, North Carolina Scholastic Media Association, Chapel Hill, NC; Dave Johnson, instructor and author, New York, NY; Mark Murray, coordinator of technology systems, Arlington Independent School District, Arlington, TX; C. Bruce Watterson, educator and consultant, Rome, GA; and David Wiegand, retired adviser, Wausau, WI.  [Source: CSPA]

High School Gold Online Newspapers

Alphabetical Order
The Paly Voice Online, Palo Alto High School, Palo Alto, CA;
The Saratoga Falcon Online, Saratoga High School, Saratoga, CA;
The Spoke Online, Conestoga High School, Berwyn, PA;
Wayland Student Press Network, Wayland High School, Wayland, MA.

High School Silver Online Newspapers

Alphabetical Order
Oakton Outlook Online, Oakton High School, Vienna, VA;
The Feather Online, Fresno Christian High School, Fresno, CA;
The Rockville Rampage, Rockville High School, Rockville, MD.

Related Links

Contact CSPA

CSPA, Columbia University, Mail Code 5711, New York, NY 10027-3899
Tel. 212-854-9400  |  Fax. 212-854-9401
cspa@columbia.edu  |  http://cspa.columbia.edu

Contact WSPN

WSPN  |  Tel. 508-785-5541  |  contact@wspn.thinkrobin.com
http://wspn.thinkrobin.com

Redefining High School
Journalism

Wayland Student Press Network (WSPN) is the online student media network of Wayland High School. Its five main divisions spotlight student journalism through news articles, commentaries, videos, photo galleries, magazine posts, and blog posts. Content of WSPN has always been published first and exclusively on the Web, focusing on visual communication and interaction with the viewers.

Founded in 2007 with the purpose of raising awareness of school activities and connecting different parts of the community in a central location, WSPN has reached its initial goals and is continuing to serve the Wayland High School community as a binding force.

Wayland Student Press, part of WSPN, is the winner of a National Pacemaker Award, which is given to top high school and college publications in the nation. After winning the award in its first year, WSPN has continued to garner attention from various media specialists and attain awards from different press associations.

Due to its success, WSPN has been able to bring a new journalism course to Wayland High School for the year 2008-2009. Currently, WSPN staff members include journalism students as well as many others from the school community who serve as the leading force of an open, student-run media organization. As of March 2009, sixty percent of the staff consists of students outside of the journalism class.

WSPN uses innovative and unconventional ways to maximize its presence in the high school community. Its website serves as the homepage of all computers on campus, and WSPN has installed a 52″ display in the Commons area for public viewing of its site. Any student can navigate through the network website using a computer kiosk connected to the display.

We also embrace the power of humor, the popularity of multimedia content, and the effectiveness of Web tools (e.g. weekly e-mail newsletter, Twitter) to make a lasting impact among the students and beyond, reaching countless parents, teachers, administrators, and other visitors.

Staff members of WSPN update the website every day, resulting in more than 2,000 pageviews from the Wayland community each school day. In addition to these visits, WSPN gets many more hits from across the nation and around the world.

WSPN uses Wordpress, an open source publishing application, as its website’s content management system. We do not use any templates made by others; every aspect of WSPN originates with the students.

Wayland High School is a public school with approximately 900 students, located in Wayland, Massachusetts, about 30 minutes from Boston.