Members of The Reflector traveled to Troy, Ala., Feb. 20-21 to compete in the 2003 “Best of the South” Southeast Journalism Conference.
The Reflector placed second for Best College Newspaper. Staff members also brought back several individual awards.
The staff entered 11 categories, placed in eight and were in the Top 5 in six.
Louisiana State University’s newspaper, The Reveille, took home the top award.
Fifty-seven schools in seven states were eligible to enter the competition. Twenty-nine submitted entries in 24 categories, including news, photography, design and layout. Students who graduated during the 2003 calendar year were also allowed to compete.
Frances McDavid, communication instructor and adviser for The Reflector, has accompanied the staff to the competition for the past consecutive six years.
“This was the highest we’ve placed in the Best College Newspaper competition, though we have placed other times,” McDavid said. “The quality of the competition continued to be high, and the staffs from other schools were also extremely enthusiastic.”
News editor Pam McTeer said, “I’m really excited that we did so well because we don’t actually have a school of journalism here at State.”
McTeer said that while most of the other schools in the top 10 for Best College Newspaper are actually part of their journalism schools, The Reflector is completely separate from MSU’s communication department.
Editor in chief Wilson Boyd said that even though he was pleased the staff did so well, placing in the competition is not The Reflector’s main goal.
“Competitions are nice and a good way to measure how we’re doing in comparison to other college newspapers, but always our goal here is to serve our readers,” Boyd said “We don’t write the paper to win competitions; it’s just a nice side effect.”
Boyd said that out of the two competitions The Reflector staff participates in, this conference is more important to the staff because they compete against universities that are closer in size to MSU and it’s more competitive.
The Reflector beat several newspapers from rival schools, including University of Mississippi, University of Alabama and University of Southern Mississippi.
“It’s always nice to beat Ole Miss in anything,” Boyd said.
Placing in the Top 5 was exciting to sports editor Craig Peters as well, but for other reasons.
“We attended the club at the hotel and it had five pictures from when Troy State beat Mississippi State,” Peters said. “It was disheartening, to say the least. But thankfully we came back the next day with a No. 2 overall ranking.”
Several current and former staff members returned with individual awards. Boyd placed second for College Journalist of the Year. Peters placed fifth for Best Sports Writer. Powers placed third for Best Editorial Artist/Illustrator and third for Best News Graphic Designer.
Movie critic Gabe Smith was No. 2 for Best Arts/Entertainment Writer. Former opinion editor Michael Stewart placed fourth and Edward Sanders placed seventh for Best Opinion-Editorial Writer, respectively. Former news editor Heath Fowler won ninth place for Best Newspaper Page Layout Designer.
Boyd said he was pleased with the overall ranking because of the teamwork involved in producing a newspaper.
“I think it’s a credit to our entire staff because even winning individual awards requires a lot of teamwork,” Boyd said. “Behind every good newspaper are dozens of unsung heroes like copy editors and ad staffers who make contributions but don’t get much credit.”
“The overall award is some recognition of what they’ve done for the paper,” Boyd added.