Crimson Newsmagazine from Paso Robles High School earned a 6th Place Best of Show Award for Website at the Spring 2016 NSPA National High School
Journalism Convention in Los Angeles. The April 16, 2016 award, which identified the 10 best sites at the 5000-student, 300-school convention, was announced at the downtown Bonaventure Hotel amid tight competition from schools around the country.
It is the program’s ninth top-10 finish since 2008 in either print newsmagazine or website categories.
“We are all so proud of our primary web designer, Sam Mabry, for his work in our site. It is incredible to place, and we couldn’t have done it without him,” Editor-in-Chief Jessica Cole said.
Three PRHS students from Crimson also placed among 1268 contestants in skills contests. Cole brought home a gold medal Superior in Review Writing, scoring in the top 5 percent of over 1260 contestants. Junior Sadie Mae Mace earned an Excellent in News Writing, and co Editor-in-Chief Emily Ayer won an Honorable Mention in Newsmagazine Layout.
“This was my favorite convention,” Ayer announced Monday in class, following four convention appearances since her sophomore year. Ayer plans to attend SFSU in the Fall.
A total of 12 PRHS students attended the L.A. event with teacher John Rucker, who directs the audio-visual side of Crimson media. He and co-adviser Jeff Mount advise the multi-class effort to cover campus news, features, and sports. Crimson has a six year string of All American designations from the NSPA.
Convention attendance and training are behind the quality of PRHS Journalism, according to Mount. He also credits the commitment of this year’s 31-student newsmagazine staff and leadership from seniors Ayer, Cole, Maureen Pushea, and Mariela Villa, who are three-year journalism students serving as chief editors.
The National Scholastic Press Association and the Journalism Education Association are non-profit education organizations striving to educate and recognize the work of student journalists, improve the quality of student media, and foster careers in the field.
