After many hours dedicated to brainstorming story ideas, writing and laying out pages, The Gannon Knight received an award for the work put in by the 2016-2017 staff.
I like to believe that on Thursday, July 27, each staff member smiled a little brighter as they received an email from our adviser telling us we received an award. Upon further reading we learned that the newspaper had placed first in the American Scholastic Press Association’s annual newspaper competition.
The Association called The Knight, “An excellent school newspaper, which shows the creativity and journalistic knowledge of your editors, reporters, writers, photographers, layout/graphics designers and advisor.”
Knight adviser Frank Garland gave special praise to the editorial and Perspective pages, calling it one of the strongest groups he’s had in years. He saluted the entire editorial board, which included just one assistant editor, saying that the group took its work seriously and put out a quality product.
Each paper that was critiqued was given a certain number of points with a total of 1,000 points possible.
The name of the game is quite simple – the more points you earn the better placement you receive from the Association.
The Gannon Knight received 930 points out of the 1,000 possible points. If you ask me I’d say we did downright fantastic, and missing 70 points out of 1,000 warrants an A++ in my book.
The six criteria that each paper is graded on are content coverage, page design, general plan, art, advertising, illustrations, editing and creativity.
The Knight showed best in content coverage, receiving 320 points out of 330. Editing received 120 out of 125 and general plan received a perfect 200.
I am incredibly proud of how the staff performed last year, and I also realize I have some big shoes to fill – thank you Kelsey Ghering Stiglitz. You and last year’s staff set the bar high, but I think this year’s staff is ready to pick up the torch and run with it.
Our goal will always be to bring you the best issue we can produce each week and stay true to journalistic values.
I think that we have a great staff this year, and I am looking forward to working with them. Each year will always provide new memories to be made on Tuesday night in the infamous Knight Office.
As a side note, if you ever want to write for the Knight, feel free to reach out to any of us, and we can connect you with the right person. Sorry but not sorry for the plug.
Lastly, I wanted to thank last year’s staff for a great year, but I am excited for this year’s staff and I hope we can live up to the same standard as last year.
However, I hope you all enjoy this year’s issues, no pun intended. Also, I know each editor has his or her own personal busy schedules as we all do, but I hope each Tuesday will provide the opportunity to relax, write and enjoy some time with friends.
Good luck to everyone as the year begins, and I hope you enjoy each of the 24 issues we produce of The Gannon Knight.
BRANDON JACES
