Evangel University’s student newspaper, The Lance, is a 2017 recipient of the Online Pacemaker award for website excellence, announced at the annual Associated College Press (ACP) conference on Oct. 25-29.
The Pacemaker awards are national awards recognizing excellence in student journalism.
“The Pacemaker is the association’s preeminent award and is often called the Pulitzer Prize of collegiate journalism,” said Laura Widmer, ACP executive director. “ACP is honored to recognize the best of the best.”
The Lance is the only student newspaper in Missouri to receive a Pacemaker award for print or online in 2017.
According to the ACP website, there is a category for each type of publication — online, newspaper, yearbook and magazine. Online Pacemaker awards are based on design, ease of navigation, writing and editing, graphics and interactivity.
Mallory Johnson, junior, served as Editor-in-Chief of The Lance during the judging period. Vincent Bushong, junior, serves as the online editor. Gabby Gordon, junior, serves as content designer. The collaboration of the three resulted in a redesign of the website in 2017.
This is the first time that The Lance has been awarded the Pacemaker Award. The Lance’s website was previously named as a finalist in 2013.
The Excalibur, Evangel’s student yearbook, was also previously named a Pacemaker finalist.
“The Lance’s website is recognized to be as professional as student newspaper sites from UCLA, Colorado State, the University of Michigan and other well-known universities. This is a public acknowledgement of the outstanding work that our Evangel students do week in and week out,” said Melinda Booze, assistant professor and faculty advisor for The Lance.
“The Pacemaker is ACP’s top award, and it inspires us to continue producing excellent student media,” she added.
For the Online Pacemaker award, 25 online news sites were recognized as finalists out of a total 105 entries from across the country. Respected media professionals judge and analyze each entry in order to narrow down to the finalists. From there, 14 winners were chosen.
“Today’s best online sites are platforms for rich multimedia storytelling,” said Gary Lundgren, ACP associate director. “Deep and diverse coverage with strong engagement and interactivity distinguish the best student-produced sites.”
“The Lance staff members spend many hours each week to bring local and campus information to their readers,” said Cameron Pace, chair of the Communication Department at Evangel. “I am very glad to see national recognition come to this hard-working group, including their adviser, Melinda Booze.”