UA Students at Crimson White, Alice Receive SPJ Regional Awards

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Two periodicals produced entirely by students at The University of Alabama have garnered numerous awards in the annual Society of Professional Journalists Region 3 Mark of Excellence contest.

The Crimson White newspaper and Alice magazine won first place in six categories and received six finalist awards in the competition. The contest honors the best in collegiate student journalism based on such criteria as enterprise, ingenuity, respect for audience and adherence to high journalistic standards, including the SPJ code of ethics.

Since 1894, the Crimson White has been the student news organization and paper of record for UA. Some 15,000 papers are circulated daily throughout campus and the Tuscaloosa area.

Alice produced its debut issue in November 2015.  The magazine is the product of more than 100 diverse college women who collaborated to conceptualize the best ways to help other students navigate through college. Alice also offers content on entertainment, beauty, lifestyle, health and fitness. Hard copies are sold online and in the UA Supply Store on campus.

Category winners will be recognized at regional SPJ conferences in the spring and are automatically entered into competition with all regional winners for national awards. A designation as finalist denotes an entry that finished in the top three in a category.

“The awards demonstrate a recognition from SPJ of The Crimson White’s strong editorial voice and passionate work to tell powerful stories that impact campus and the Tuscaloosa community, and we couldn’t be prouder of that,” said Sean Landry, CW editor-in-chief. “We’ll build on that work to continue to make an impact in 2016 and beyond.”

“The news was such an unexpected but exciting surprise, especially since this is Alice’s first year of publication,” said Allison Ingram, who is co-editor-in-chief of Alice with  Tara Massouleh. “It’s been a pleasure to work with some of the best students from colleges across our campus and an honor to help start something that has already reached so many women and will continue to reach even more in the future.”

 The Crimson White awards:

• Marguerite Powers (Mobile), first place, editorial cartooning.
• The Crimson White editorial board, first place, editorial writing.
• Mark Hammontree (Mountain Brook), first place, large school (more than 10,000 students) general column writing.
• Alana Norris (Muscle Shoals), first place, large school general news reporting.
• Elliott Propes (Birmingham), first place, large school sports writing.
• Savannah Vankirk (Amity, Pennsylvania), finalist, large school feature writing.
• Amy Sullivan (Snellville, Georgia), finalist, large school general news photography.
• Hanna Curlette (Birmingham), finalist, large school sports photography.
• The Crimson White staff, finalist, large school in-depth reporting.

Alice magazine awards:

• Alice Magazine staff, first place, best student magazine.
• Becca Murdoch (Montgomery) and Laura Testino (Acworth, Georgia), finalists, nonfiction magazine article.
• Becca Murdoch, finalist, nonfiction magazine article.

A complete list of Region 3 winners/finalists is posted on the SPJ website at https://www.spj.org/.