This weekend, Oct. 27-30, The Battalion earned two national recognitions and 16 national awards from the Associated Collegiate Press, or ACP, the College Media Association, or CMA, and the Student Press Law Center, or SPLC.
Four members of The Battalion staff attended MediaFest22, the national collegiate journalism convention, hosted by CMA, ACP and the Society for Professional Journalists, SPJ.
On Thursday, Oct. 27, the staff earned eight Pinnacle Awards from CMA, honoring “the best college media organizations and individual work.”
Honorable Mention: Best Advertising Supplement/Special Section: Maroon Life 2022 New Students’ Guide to Aggieland
Honorable Mention: Best Infographic: Gabrielle Shreve, Contraceptive Guide
Honorable Mention: Best Newspaper Front Page: Cori Eckert, Print’s Not Dead
Third Place: Best Photo Illustration: Robert O’Brien, The Rudder Association
Second Place: Best Column: Zach Freeman, And nothing else matters
First Place: Best Editorial: Staff, Print’s Not Dead
First Place: Best Special Section-Four Pages or Less: Staff, Roll Tears Roll
First Place: Best Sports Section: Staff
On Friday, Oct. 28, the staff earned the inaugural Student Press Freedom Award from SPLC. This award recognizescollege journalists for “brave advocacy on behalf of a free student press,” specifically for The Battalion’s advocacy for the print edition in February of 2022.
Also on Friday, the staff earned four ACP Awards, honoring the best individual collegiate journalism work of the year:
Honorable Mention: Story of the Year, In-Depth News Story: Casey Stavenhagen, Nathan Varnell, The Rudder Association
Honorable Mention: Story of the Year, Column: Zach Freeman, And nothing else matters
Honorable Mention: Advertisement of the Year: Newspaper Special Section/Advertising: Maroon Life 2022 New Students’ Guide to Aggieland
Second Place: Photo of the Year: Sports Game/Action Photo: Ishika Samant, Flying High in Reed Arena
The Battalion was also recognized as a finalist in the online and newspaper categories for ACP’s Pacemaker Awards, the premiere award for collegiate journalism. The Battalion was named a 2022 Pacemaker in the newspaper category.
The Pacemaker, Pinnacle and other awards received honored work from the 2021-22 academic year, but The Battalion also received two Best of Show awards from ACP.
Tenth Place: Feature Magazine (four-year campus): Staff, Maroon Life, Fall Sports 2022
Tenth Place: Newspaper/Newsmagazine (four-year campus with more than 15,000 students): Election Guide 2022: Oct. 20, 2022
In addition to various accolades, students attended professional development and networking events, and three keynote speeches from The Washington Post’s Dave Jorgenson, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein as well as the newest SPJ fellows. During the induction ceremony, Roland Martin, Class of 1991, was named an SPJ Fellow. Martin was inducted in 2008 into the Former Journalism Students Association Hall of Honor.
