Daily News wins SPJ awards

The Ball State Daily News won first place in editorial writing and general column writing in this year’s regional Mark of Excellence Awards from the Society of Professional Journalists.

The Editorial Writing award went to Rhett Umphress, Benjamin Dashley and Sarah Boswell. Benjamin Dashley won first place in General Column Writing.

Other staffers winning awards included Dylan Buell for photography and Daniel Sipocz for in-depth reporting.

Those were among nine Daily News awards in the contest, which honors the best collegiate journalism in the U.S. and this year included more than 4,000 entries in the group’s 12 regions.

SPJ announced the Region 5 winners covering Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky, on Saturday at its spring conference at the Marriott Downtown in Indianapolis.

The first-place winners advance to the national competition round, where winners will be announced in late April.

Daily News takes Ind Collegiate Press awards

The Ball State Daily News took 28 awards in the annual Indiana Collegiate Press Association contest on Saturday, including first-place honors in non-deadline news, sports and features photo, illustration and advertising.

Dylan Buell won both first and second place in Best Sports Photo.

“This photo really captures the tension and movement that the play had,” the judge said of Buell’s first-place picture. “The defender feels like he is going to keep moving and fall out of the photo.”

Bobby Ellis won first place in Best Feature Photo for “Reaching Greater Heights,” of which the judge said: “The cool angle of this photo reflects how exciting a rock climbing competition can be.”

Tiffany Ruesser took first place in Best Illustration for her “Super Cardinal,” a Page 1 illustration playing off the “Superman” theme for this year’s Homecoming football game.

“Possibly the best single page in the entire competition,” the judge wrote “Love this illustration, and spoofing the Daily Planet took this page to the next level. Clean, sophisticated and just awesome.”

A records-based reporting project by Editor-in-Chief Sarah Boswell won first place in the Best Non-Deadline News Reporting category.

“Strong use of public records law to show how BSU police deal with complaints about campus police officers,” the judge wrote.

A dozen other Daily News editorial entries won awards in the Newspaper Division I category for dailies printing three or more times per week.

In the Advertising division, Madison Stevens of the Daily News won three first-place awards for Most Creative Use of Ad Copy, Best Ad layout and Best Use of Photography or Graphic Art.

Fellow designer Elizabeth Wojdyla took a first-place award for Best Electronic Ad – Display, and nine other Daily News entries also won awards in the Advertising category.

Crocker Stephenson visits Daily News

Crocker Stephenson of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, winner of the Eugene S. Pulliam National Journalism Writing Award at Ball State University, talks with student editors today at the Daily News.

"I write long features, but I love covering breaking news - it's such an adrenaline rush," he said.

Earlier:

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter wins Pulliam writing award
(3/15/2012)

Crocker Stephenson, a reporter for Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, has won the 2012 Eugene S. Pulliam National Journalism Writing Award presented annually by Ball State University's Department of Journalism.

Stephenson is being honored for his Oct. 2 article "83 Minutes of Life Delivers Lifetime of Memories, Grieving for Couple." The reporter will be recognized April 11 at the department's annual luncheon with a plaque and the $1,500 prize, presented on behalf of the Pulliam family, sponsors of the annual writing award.

The award winner also will give his presentation "Finding Story: A Narrative Nonfiction Writer's Journey" as part of the journalism department's professional-in-residence series. The event, which is free and open to the public, begins at 7:30 p.m. April 11 in Cardinal Hall in the L.A. Pittenger Student Center.

The annual national writing competition, which dates back to 1960, has a distinguished history and legacy. Three past winners have later won Pulitzer Prizes.

Stephenson's award-winning article, part of a yearlong series on Milwaukee's infant mortality crisis, used in-depth reporting and a classic narrative structure to explore the impact one short life had on many people.

Stephenson has been a reporter at the Milwaukee Sentinel (later Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) for 25 years. In recent years, he has written on social issues that impact the lives of children, including child welfare, child abuse and infant mortality.
By Marc Ransford, Media Relations Manager

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