Gargoyle wins 12 regional SPJ awards, including best independent online publication

From Staff | gargoyle@flagler.edu

The Gargoyle, Flagler’s online-only, student-run newspaper, won a total of 12 awards in the Society of Professional Journalists’ 2013 Mark of Excellence Awards for Region 3. Five were five first place finishes including one for Best Independent Online Student Publication. Those first place winners will now move on to the national SPJ competition.

Region 3 includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.

In addition, students from Assistant Professor Robbie Gordon’s Advanced Journalism II class took home two awards for Television General News Reporting. Sarah Worthington, Daniel Arbealez and Kristin Kownacky won one award with Kownacky earning another award alone. Sarah Williamson, from Associate Professor of Communication Helena Sarkio’s Advanced Reporting class, also won an award for Feature Writing. Those pieces were also published in The Gargoyle.

The Gargoyle won 15 regional awards last year in a category for schools up to 5,000 students. This year, The Gargoyle competed against schools with up to 10,000 students such as the University of Central Florida, the University of South Carolina, the University of Miami and others. Last year The Gargoyle also won the college’s first-ever national SPJ award.

The awards honor the best in student journalism, and judges chose only those entries they felt were outstanding work worthy of such an honor. If the judges determined that none of the entries rose to the level of excellence, no award was given.

“These students are just producing some terrific stuff, so it’s wonderful to see them recognized like this,” said Gargoyle Advisor Brian Thompson. “It was especially gratifying to win the online student publication award, as the runner-up was the University of Central Florida. That just goes to show we had some strong competition.”

Gargoyle awards included:
– First place, Best Independent Online Student Publication, The Gargoyle
– Finalist, General News Reporting (Small), Ashley Goodman
– Finalist, In-Depth Reporting (Small), Matt Keene
– First place, Feature Writing (Small), Alexa Epitropoulos, Flagler College Gargoyle, Flagler College
– First place, Sports Writing (Small), Matt Pagels
– Finalist, Sports Writing (Small), Teaira Marque
– First place, General News Photography (Small), Sarah Williamson
– Finalist, Feature Photography (Small), Sarah Williamson
– Finalist, Online News Reporting, Alexa Epitropoulos
– Finalist, Online Feature Reporting, Alexa Epitropoulos
– First place, Online Opinion & Commentary, Hannah Bleau
– Finalist, Online Opinion & Commentary, Cassie Colby

Other Flagler College award winners:
– Finalist, Television General News Reporting, Kristin Kownacky
– Finalist, Television General News Reporting, Sarah Worthington, Kristin Kownacky and Daniel Arbealez
– Finalist, Feature Writing (Small), Sarah Williamson