Online Pacemaker Awards select Flagler College student newspaper as national finalist

From Staff

Flagler College’s campus newspaper, The Gargoyle, is an online finalist in the Pacemaker Awards, a national competition widely regarded as “the Pulitzer Prize of student journalism.”

Associated Collegiate Press chose The Gargoyle Web site to compete in the Online Pacemaker contest alongside online student newspapers from George Washington University, Temple University, College of William and Mary, San Francisco State University and others. ACP awards the Online Pacemaker each year based on design, ease of navigation, writing and editing, graphics and interactivity.

“To be up for a Pacemaker is an incredible accomplishment, as it’s really one of the top awards a college publication can win nationally,” said Brian Thompson, Flagler College newspaper adviser. “We’re probably the smallest college on the list of finalists, but I always thought we had the potential to compete with papers much larger than us. I think that really speaks to the hard work and innovative material our student editors, designers and reporters have been producing.”

The judging was done by Ju-Don Roberts, managing editor of the Washingtonpost.com, who said sites that made it to the final round went beyond bells and whistles, but also maintained a high standards of journalism.

“The quality of the journalism was extremely important to us as we reviewed the sites,” she said. “Let me stress that great designs and a lot of cool features won’t mask a thinly reported or poorly edited site. The journalism is what matters most. Although all of the sites had room for improvement, some of what we saw was truly impressive.”

The Gargoyle’s online publication features articles from the printed edition, along with an extensive blog section, original videos, photo galleries and other web-exclusive content. The current site, http://fcgargoyle.wpengine.com, was launched in August 2005. It receives an average 5,000 visits each month.

Pacemaker Award winners will be announced at the National College Media Convention to be held October 24-28 in Washington, D.C. There are four Pacemaker categories: newspaper, online, yearbook/magazine and broadcast.

The ACP student journalism awards have been given annually since 1927. Learn more at www.studentpress.org.