The Spectrum, NDSU’s student newspaper, won first place in its category at the Associated Collegiate Press’ Best of the Midwest College Newspaper Convention held in Minneapolis Feb. 8-10.
This is the first time since 2003 that the Spectrum took the top honor in the four-year, non-weekly newspaper category in the convention’s Best of Show competition.
“Our reaction when our name was announced was pretty much screams, hollers and claps,” said Spectrum editor-in-chief Linda Vasquez. “My reaction was ‘after all our hard work, we did it!’ ”
The Mirror of Lakeland College in Sheboygan, Wis., took second, and the Collegian of Jamestown College, Jamestown, N.D., took third in the category.
Vasquez attributes the Spectrum’s success to strong collaboration by staff members, new processes and risks with design, stories, photography and social media.
“Our focus this year was to establish relationships with our readers and be more interactive,” Vasquez said. “We have been able to gain feedback from readers and gained the ability to shift our focus to what readers really want from our publication.”