Humboldt’s bilingual newspaper El Leñador won first place honors for Best Newspaper Website and editor Peyton Leone won first place for Best Newspaper Front Page Layout and Design.
“Our staff did awesome,” Leone said. “I feel honored to be leading such an amazing staff and this bilingual newspaper. We strive to serve our readers.”
Humboldt’s Osprey magazine received third place for Best Magazine in the state, and Osprey photographer Savana Robinson received first place for Best Magazine Photo.
The Lumberjack placed fifth in the national Associated Collegiate Press Best of Show in the Newspaper category for schools with fewer than 15,000 students. Three Lumberjack editors received first place awards for Best Sports Story, Best Art Story, and Best Photograph. The weekly student paper won eight other awards, including one for Social Justice Reporting.
This year, 18 Cal Poly Humboldt students and two advisers attended the annual ACP Spring National College Media Convention. The conference gave students a chance to learn from industry experts, national journalistic luminaries, and their media-making peers at schools in other states. Students attended workshops on topics including “How Not To Be Sued,” photography, social media, and page design. They networked with professionals and peers, making new friends with journalism students from across the nation.
Keynote speakers included Emmy Award-winning journalist and author Ashanti Blaize-Hopkins, who explained to students that they don’t have to wait to be the future of journalism. The work they are doing now is important in keeping communities informed and supporting democracy.
Cal Poly Humboldt journalism professor Deidre Pike taught a well-attended workshop on “Parody News: The Fifth Estate.” Pike presented research about the efficacy of using parody as a tool to communicate important ideas in ways that engage audiences. Pike explained that news parody is a vehicle, and satire is its engine. Pike quoted a science journal’s takeaway from 10 years of satire research: “Satire can capture people’s attention and make complex topics accessible to a wider audience. In some circumstances, it can even sway beliefs.”
On awards night, Pike said she tried to post updates to social media as the honors were announced.
“We were winning awards so fast, I couldn’t keep up with the typing,” Pike said. “News media makers face plenty of criticism every day. It’s reassuring to be affirmed by our peers for the hard, hard work our students do every week of every semester.”
College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences Dean Jeff Crane said he followed news of the awards on social media.
"I am impressed with the success of our student journalists in the ACP national and CCMA state awards events and the range and large number of organizational and personal awards received," Crane said.
Cal Poly Humboldt winners of California College Media Awards for 2024
First Place
- Best Newspaper Website – El Leñador Staff
- Best Newspaper Front Page Layout and Design – Peyton Leone, El Leñador
- Best Sports Story – Dezmond Remington, The Lumberjack
- Best Arts & Entertainment Story – Alana Hackman, The Lumberjack
- Best News Photograph – Alex Anderson, The Lumberjack
- Best Magazine Photo – Savana Robinson, Osprey
Second Place
- Best Newspaper – August Linton, Colwyn Delaney, Angel Barker, Dezmond Remington, Nina Hufman, The Lumberjack
- Best Headline Portfolio – Griffin Mancuso, The Lumberjack
- Best Infographic – Carlina Grillo, Christina Mehr, The Lumberjack
- Best Editorial Cartoon – Valen Lambert, The Lumberjack
- Best Overall Newspaper Design – Karina Ramos Villalobos, Ruby Cayenne, El Leñador Staff
- Best Newspaper Inside Spread – Karina Ramos Villalobos, El Leñador
- Best Photo Illustration – Ione Dellos, El Leñador
Third Place
- Best Print Magazine – Osprey Staff
- Best Feature Photograph – Ruby Cayenne, El Leñador
- Best Multimedia Package – Oscar Uribe Mancillas, Abraham Navarro, Ricardo Lara Nava, El Leñador
- Best Social Justice Coverage – Jillian Wells, Alex Anderson, Dezmond Remington, Griffin Mancuso, Angel Barker, The Lumberjack
- Best Newspaper Column – Dezmond Remington, The Lumberjack
- Best Feature Photograph – Alex Anderson, The Lumberjack
- Best Editorial – Angel Barker, Dezmond Remington, Nina Hufman, The Lumberjack
- Best Photo Series – Alex Anderson, The Lumberjack
Associated Collegiate Press Best of Show
- Fifth Place – Best Newspaper (colleges under 15,000 students) – The Lumberjack
About the ACP: Associated Collegiate Press, with more than 570 members, is a national community of collegiate journalists and collegiate-journalism advisers.
About the CCMA: A coalition of staff, advisers and supporters of college news media in California created the California College Media Association “to foster cooperation among colleges in the region in order to give a unified voice in addressing problems and issues that college news media face, to provide support and communications to advisers and editors, to nurture college journalists, and to share valuable resources.