Being on staff at a student newspaper like The Northerner is hard work. The staff works countless hours every week to produce a newspaper that serves the NKU community, which includes students, faculty and staff. The staff still goes to classes, and racks up late hours doing homework like any other student, but in many cases, writers are putting news for the students ahead of their own work, which shows great dedication. And there’s not even a big paycheck with the job either.
But with perceived low credibility and little trust from the student body, The Northerner faces constant criticism; oftentimes students only read it to point out minor misspellings and grammatical errors. The hard work of 20 (on a good week) staff members is rarely read or recognized, so praise and encouragement is always welcomed, especially in award form.
This past weekend, The Northerner attended the Kentucky Press Association and Kentucky Intercollegiate Press Association (KIPA) winter convention in Louisville. KIPA hosts an annual awards breakfast for Kentucky colleges and universities. The Northerner enters headlines, stories, photos, artwork and advertising design every year in hopes of standing up to University of Louisville, University of Kentucky, Murray State University and Western Kentucky University.
This year was no different, The Northerner managed to bring home 14 awards for everything from editorial writing and design to investigative reporting and photography. Presentation editor Emily Lindeau scored six of the awards for herself in design and layout categories.
Some other notable wins were news editor Kevin Schultz’s story on the Salmon P. Chase College of Law admission standards, which won an honorable mention for investigative reporting, arts & life editor Caitlin Centner won second place for her profile on a breast cancer survivor and former web editor Brittany Granville won first place for one of her original comic strips.
What these awards tell student newspapers, or at least The Northerner, is to keep pushing forward and striving for the best, even when the target community doesn’t always seem to appreciate the service.
Now we can’t forget about the steady, faithful readers, who do pick up the new issue every Thursday, but one of our goals is to reach out to more people every week and to inform the campus and community about what goes on inside and outside of this concrete palace we call home. So, check out our website, like us on Facebook or give us a follow on Twitter (@northernermedia).
2012 KIPA Winners
• Editorial writing, first place, The Northerner
• Comic strip, first place, Brittany Granville
• Student created art, second place, Brittany Granville
• Best feature headline, second place, Maggie Pund
• Personality profile, second place, Caitlin Centner
• Informational graphic, second place, Emily Lindeau
• Feature page layout, second place, Emily Lindeau
• Sports photo, third place, Kody Kahle
• Feature page layout , third place, Emily Lindeau
• Overall layout, third place, Emily Lindeau
• Investigative reporting, honorable mention, Kevin Schultz
• Sports news story, honorable mention, John Minor
• Sports page layout, honorable mention, Emily Lindeau
• Special section, honorable mention, Emily Lindeau