The Orion Wins National Newspaper Award
for Fourth Time in Five Years

In what has almost become routine, The Orion has received another prestigious national award for excellence.

On Sunday, March 3, The Orion received a Newspaper of the Year award by the Associated Collegiate Press at its annual National College Newspaper Convention in Los Angeles.

The honor marks the second straight year and the fourth time in five years that The Orion has won first place in the Associated Collegiate Press’ “four-year college weekly” category.

The general excellence award was based on a single issue published since Sept. 2001. The Orion entered its Feb. 6, 2002, edition.

The Orion fares well in other national and regional competitions:

In 2001, The Orion was named the nation’s best college weekly by the Society of Professional Journalists, topping 10 other nationally honored newspapers.

In 2000, The Orion received first-place honors among university nondailies in the National Newspaper Association’s Better Newspapers Contest.

Over the past nine years, The Orion has won five national “Pacemaker” awards from The National Association Of Newspapers and Associated Collegiate Press as the outstanding nondaily university newspaper.

In six of the past seven years, The California Newspaper Publishers Association has selected The Orion as the state’s number one university paper.

Last month, The Society of Professional Journalists, Northern California Chapter, announced that The Orion was the sole university recipient of a James Madison Freedom of Information Award for a series on getting public agencies to comply with the Public Records Act.

“Our students continue to distinguish themselves in competition against the nation’s other top university papers,” faculty adviser Dave Waddell said. “The Orion has become a household name in the world of college newspapers. It is a paper other students and advisers admire and try to emulate.”

Attending the convention, along with Waddell, were managing editor Niesha Gates, news editor Jennifer Cooper, photo editor Jim Starling, art director Colm Conn, editorial design manager Brent Hainsworth, business manager Joe Van Noy, and assistant business managers Tyler Lewis and Aaron Ross-Swain.