Congratulations to … us!

The GW Hatchet newspaper and staff have recently won 18 Mark of Excellence awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, including best non-daily in the region – which includes D.C., Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and Delaware. Some editors have said that this is the highest number of regional awards we have received from the SPJ ever. The total includes 16 print honors and two online honors.

We will find out if the awards are first, second or third-place during an awards ceremony the weekend of March 30-31 in Richmond, Va. We’ll keep you posted as to how we do, with special attention placed on first-place awards. Those entries move on to the national competition.

In addition to being name best non-daily newspaper in the region, we also won best student magazine for “Coming Together” – a colorful publication wrapping up last year’s historic men’s basketball season. We were also recognized for a half-dozen photographic entries, several news stories, several sports articles, our staff editorials, and features and opinions pieces.
The break-down is as follows:

Print

• Jeff Baum, Sports Photography, “Men win regular season title”
• Brandon Butler/Ryan Holeywell, General News Reporting, “Locked Out: Lawsuit sheds light on endangering behavior policy”
• David Ceasar, Breaking News Reporting, “Deaf students arrested”
• David Ceasar, Breaking News Reporting, “Alum abducted in West Bank”
• Prerna Rao, Feature Writing, “When work requires play”
• Jake Sherman, Sports Writing, “Good attitude and hard work may bring Hall to NBA”
• Jake Sherman, Sports Column Writing, “Sports Columns”
• Andrew Siddons, General Column Writing, “The College Tradition We Lack”
• Benjamin Solomon, Breaking News Photography, “Toasty Trash”
• Benjamin Solomon, General News Photography, “5 Years Later”
• Benjamin Solomon, Sports Photography, “Spider Sting”
• Benjamin Solomon/Sam Sherraden, General News Photography, “Grads honored on National Mall”
• Benjamin Solomon/Nick Gingold, Feature Photography, “Inside the Walls”
• Staff, Editorial Writing, “Staff Editorials”
• Staff, Best All-Around Non-Daily Student Newspaper, “The GW Hatchet”
• Staff, Best Student Magazine, “Coming Together”

Online

• David Ceasar, Online News Reporting, “Web Update: U.S. senator undergoes brain surgery at GW Hospital”
• Jake Sherman, Online Sports Reporting, “GW in the NCAA Tournament”