Orion celebrates fourth consecutive win of college journalism's 'Pulitzer'

The Orion, Chico State’s student-run newspaper, has won its fourth straight national newspaper Pacemaker award and 10th Pacemaker overall.

The award is given by the Associated Collegiate Press, the oldest and largest national organization for college journalists, and has been called the Pulitzer Prize of college journalism.

The Pacemaker requires winners to have sustained general excellence over the course of an academic year, said Dave Waddell, Orion adviser and CSU, Chico journalism faculty member.

"That The Orion is the only college or university newspaper in the nation to have won the award for four years running speaks volumes about the talent and consistency of our students," he said.

Students from The Orion accepted the award Oct. 28 at the National College Media Convention in St. Louis.

In addition, one of the Orion designers, Brad Bodenham, took a first place in design at the National College Media Convention for his house ad about the newspaper.

Just two weeks earlier The Orion was named the nation's best student newspaper by the National Newspaper Association for the fourth time in seven years.

Second place went to The Daily Universe, the student newspaper at Brigham Young University, and Ohio State University's student newspaper, The Lantern, received an honorable mention.

The National Newspaper Association (NNA) is the largest newspaper association in the United States, with more than 2,500 newspaper members. Each year it hosts the Better Newspaper Contest, where entries are judged by newspaper professionals.

Judges lauded The Orion, which was honored for three issues published in 2005.

"No contest," the judges wrote. "This is an outstanding newspaper and outclassed ... the field. Superb campus life/student coverage. Interesting content with great variety."

The Orion, first published in 1975, is a laboratory newspaper of CSU, Chico's Department of Journalism, which has one of the top news-editorial programs in the country. Among the newspaper's other honors is being named best university newspaper by the California Newspaper Publishers Association a record eight times over the past 12 years. The Orion was inducted into the Associated Collegiate Press Hall of Fame in 2005 for its record of achievement.