It's becoming a tradition The BG News could easily get used to.
For the second consecutive year and the third time in four years, The BG News has been named Best All-Around Daily Student Newspaper by the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) in its Region 4 Mark of Excellence awards contest.
Besides the all-around award, seven BG News staff members won writing and photography awards. The BG News' three first-place individual winners included 2005-06 Editor-in-Chief Bob Moser, Campus News Editor Bridget Tharp and Photographer Josh Phillips.
The BG News and the first-place individual winners will compete against awardees from 11 other SPJ regions in the country for top national honors. Those winners will be announced at the national SPJ convention in late August in Chicago.
"The number of awards speaks to the overall quality of work, not only by this staff, but staffs from the past few years who have continually raised the bar of excellence," said Bob Bortel, '77, '83, director of BGSU's Office of Student Publications and BG News adviser. "It is especially gratifying that their work is being recognized by professionals actively working in the business."
Bortel and 12 members of his student staff attended the SPJ Region 4 Convention in April in Cincinnati, where the awards were announced. Region 4 includes schools in Michigan, West Virginia, Ohio and western Pennsylvania.
The BG News Fund, a fund-raising effort recently created by the BGSU Development Office, helped pay for the students' trip to Cincinnati. Besides student travel, The BG News Fund is designed to support equipment needs, leadership development and training for BG News staff members.
Also competing in the Region 4 competition for best all-around daily newspaper were The Post at Ohio University, The Lantern at Ohio State University, and The Daily Kent Stater from Kent State University.
Tharp won first place in general news for her coverage of the October 2005 riots in Toledo, while Moser took first place in the in-depth reporting category for his April 2005 story about student residents unhappy over not being told their apartments were located close to an animal processing plant.
Phillips won top honors in sports photography for his shot of the women's soccer team embracing one another, moments after winning the Mid-American Championship in November 2005.
BG News staffers winning second-place awards included Ryan Autullo in sports writing and Jessica Wagner in featuring writing. Honorable mention awards went to Cassandra Shofar in the breaking news category and Andrea Slivka for in-depth reporting.
The BG News also won a 2005 Award of Excellence from the Society of News Design for best sports front page. The section, titled "Back to Back," appeared Nov. 7, 2005, and featured the women's soccer team's second consecutive Mid-American Conference championship.
