CW Selected as Nation’s Top College Weekly Newspaper

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — In its 124-year history, The Crimson White has won its share of awards.

So what’s the big deal about another award? Well, it depends on the award.

The College Media Association named the CW the national Four-Year Weekly Newspaper of the Year at its Pinnacle Awards competition recently in Dallas.

The Pinnacle Awards honors the best college media organizations and individual work in the country, according to its website.

Elizabeth Elkin, editor-in-chief of the CW, said she knew they were finalists for the award, but was ecstatic when they won.

“They called out fourth through second place then they called us out as first place,” Elkin said. “It was extremely dramatic. You listen to them call the other names and we’re like, ‘we’re not third, we’re not second.’ It was extremely cool. We screamed, jumped up.”

Elkin, a 22-year-old senior majoring in journalism, said the award is for the work done by last year’s staff when she was managing editor.

She said it’s nice to see the paper’s staff recognized for the hard work they do.

“The reason The Crimson White is such an incredible college newspaper is because we have the best journalists in the nation,” she said. “We have fantastic designers, fantastic editorial staff. Everyone on staff is really dedicated.

“My staff works as real journalists while they’re full-time students. It’s like a full-time job, but it’s what we do and we love it. We feel like we’re doing really important work here.”

The Crimson White has published twice weekly since 2015. Prior to 2015 the paper was a daily publishing four times a week.

The paper employs between 75-100 students both paid and unpaid.