Reposted from The Digital Universe, July 22, 2013
The Universe is a “General Excellence” winner in the National Newspaper Association’s most recent Better Newspaper Contest, announced July 19.The Universe also claimed first place awards for its promotions and typography excellence and additional awards for promotions, best use of ad color and feature and sports photos.Details of the General Excellence recognition will be announced at an award ceremony in Phoenix on Sept. 14.“Loved this!” judges said of the promotion for The Universe’s “Day in the Life of BYU” project conducted Nov. 9. The project invited the entire campus community, including students and faculty studying abroad, to document their “campus” experience in photos, all during a single 24-hour period. Participation came from across campus and remote locations like Jordan, Spain and Scotland.“I imagine this was very popular and garnered a lot of interest. I also loved your promotional ad and how you handled the results,” judges said. The day-in-the-life project resulted in a web gallery of more than 700 pictures that significantly boosted online traffic. “What a great idea to see the university through the eyes of your readers,” the judges said.Students contributing to the planning and execution of the day-in-the-life project include editor Rebecca Lane, web editor Court Mann, project coordinator Kristina Smith, web developer Bobby Swingler and features editor Charles Beacham.The Universe also claimed an honorable mention for its “Discover Your University” promotion, designed by Thomas Busath, James Gardner and Brad Davis; and a second place award for best use of ad color.The contest grouped media outlets by circulation size. These Universe entries were judged among non-daily newspapers with a circulation of 16,000 or more.Also in the non-daily division of the contest, The Universe claimed first place for Excellence in Typography and honorable mentions in photography for a feature photo by Chris Bunker and sports photo by Sarah Hill.The Universe is Brigham Young University’s student laboratory news organization. It’s core news products are the online news site, universe.byu.edu, mobile news apps available for both Apple and Android platforms, and a weekly newspaper that is circulated on campus.In June The Universe claimed eight first-place awards and 14 other awards, more than all other Utah collegiate publications combined, in an annual competition sponsored by the Utah Headliners chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. That recognition followed the Student Society of News Design’s top honors in its College News Design Contest, which went to The Universe in April for breaking news coverage of the LDS Church’s announcement about lower eligibility ages for missionaries.Also in April, The Universe swept the in-depth reporting category for student newspapers in its size category, claimed first-place honors in breaking news reporting, general news reporting and photo illustrations and was recognized with other awards in the Society of Professional Journalists’ Mark of Excellence competition.See more at: http://universe.byu.edu/2013/04/15/byu-takes-society-of-professional-journalists-awards/#sthash.tS3Tbw1h.dpuf- See more at: http://universe.byu.edu/2013/07/22/national-newspaper-assn-gives-universe-general-excellence-and-other-awards/#sthash.ITEg8WaZ.dpuf