Crimson website named 6th at national convention
–From the Crimson Newsmagazine
Award marks ninth top-10 finish since 2008
–Crimson Newsmagazine from Paso Robles High School has announced its 6th Place Best of Show Award for Website at the Spring 2016 NSPA National High School Journalism Convention in Los Angeles. The April 16, 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 said Monday, following four convention appearances since her sophomore year. Ayer plans to attend SFSU in the Fall.
The team behind the 6th Place: web director Sam Mabry, Managing Editor Sadie Mae Mace, and Co-Editors-in-Chief Emily Ayer and Jessica Cole.
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 squarely 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.
Crimson teases stories regularly to its Facebook Page. The site itself is a WordPress site hosted outside the district and managed daily by junior Sam Mabry and dozens of student photographers and writers.
Overall, PRHS journalism has grown into a 150-student unified program across six classes that are aligned with Careers in Technical Education.
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.
Crimson staff have made a special commitment to sports coverage this year, led by Maureen Pushea and Madecyn Penn.
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