Additional Publications

34 Spectator, from Fredonia Central High School, is as Best High School Newspaper in New York State. The newspaper staff earned 75 contest points, including the first place award for Best Sports Story, as well as eight other awards. The judges said, "Great writing, strong bold graphics with nice mix of articles, stories, art, photos, illustrations, clean fonts, all create a great feel. Decent amount of local business advertisements. Wonderful sports coverage too." Spectator 2018 BEST HIGH SCHOOL NEWSPAPER GENERAL EXCELLENCE FIRST PLACE Brocton Review, Brocton Central School Brocton High School's students' lives are certainly depicted well in this fine publication. Attention to details throughout. Pull quotes within the articles and stories, strong use of photography, left-justified column text, all paired with quality writing skills make this take first place. SECOND PLACE Hewlett Spectrum, GW Hewlett High School Strong school newspaper. Clean, uniform look keeps it organized. Articles are well- written with a great amount of student participation. Center spread is eye-catching. Use of occasional graphics and photos is a nice touch. THIRD PLACE Spectator, Fredonia Central High School Great writing, strong bold graphics with nice mix of articles, stories, art, photos, illustrations, clean fonts, all create a great feel. Decent amount of local business advertisements. Wonderful sports coverage too. HONORABLE MENTION Tarmac, Chaminade High School Talented staff of students teaming together to produce a wonderful paper. Good writing, topics, columns, stories, original illustrations. Students should be proud. NEWS STORY FIRST PLACE Hewlett Spectrum, GW Hewlett High School Rachel Miller School shootings — brings attention to an important issue. It is a real shame that young people (all people really) should even have to think or deal with such chaos. Side note: Andrea's original illustration paired perfectly. SECOND PLACE Brocton Review, Brocton Central School Tim Odell A beautiful and touching piece recognizing a generous community effort. Anderson & Marmaduke will keep creating many smiles. THIRD PLACE Tarmac, Chaminade High School Owen Barthel Skilled writing technique keeps this impressive obituary both factual and interesting. Well done! HONORABLE MENTION The Courant, Commack High School Sarah Elliot Yellow Ribbon Project for fallen heroes is a very respectable story. Nice. FEATURE STORY FIRST PLACE Tarmac, Chaminade High School Nicholas Plante and Aidan Fitzgerald Collage of testimonials expressing the life and passing of Mr. Porter is extremely well done. The incorporation of dates, times, personal emotions, real stories, photographs all help make us feel as if we knew Philip too. Moving to say the least! SECOND PLACE The Phoenix, Kellenberg Memorial High School Maya Tadross Important information about mental health issues surrounding our youth. THIRD PLACE Spectator, Fredonia Central High School Alexis Schroeder and Nathan Stuart The "he said/she said" debate on homework amounts and its practicality and necessity is both argumentative and yet, slightly humorous at the same time. It does prove that there are two sides to the coin. HONORABLE MENTION Brocton Review, Brocton Central School Jen Potter This certainly helps make readers have a better understanding of the flu and the necessity of vaccinations. COLUMN FIRST PLACE The Courant, Commack High School Danielle Ranucci I applaud your decision to write about things that concern you and the people around you. Your writing is clear and easy to understand. You do a good job of keeping to your message and not straying off topic. What sets these apart is your call to action in the columns. Opinion writing does little good if it does not spark discussion and offer readers opportunities to do something or make change. Good job. SECOND PLACE Spectator, Fredonia Central High School Dominic Gullo You took some big risks here with some opinions that I am sure many of your peers disagree with. Your choice in defending actions of some controversial characters is bold, but you do a good job in crafting a devil's advocate argument and relating your opinion to broader ideas that relate to humanity. Well done. THIRD PLACE Tarmac, Chaminade High School Owen Barthel Your column about Dr. Kumar was excellent. His story is very interesting and I appreciate how you tied it in to your own broader experience. Shorter, tighter writing, less pretentious vocabulary, and empathy for your readers will keep them reading longer. HONORABLE MENTION Tarmac, Chaminade High School Colin Capece Your column on local youth sports was well- written and a great topic for your audience. I am sure many of your peers read the column and connected to the content. Your vocabulary is strong. Consider sticking to content that isn't available anywhere else (NFL sports content is ubiquitous). DESIGN FIRST PLACE Brocton Review, Brocton Central School This was a very tough category, as most of the entries were very well done. A very well-put-together newspaper, where each page had a focal point, dominant story and/or photo, a clear rule for columns, and nice, big, short headlines that got to the point. Also, does not try to get too creative just creative sake, just gets down to business. SECOND PLACE The Phoenix, Kellenberg Memorial High School Maya Tadross and Sean Ronan Oh my, did I say this was a tough category to judge? This was a very close second place, as this paper utilizes some of the best photography in the group, and builds very nice pages around them, to bring the readers' eyes to the places they want them to. Only modest issues - headlines get sometimes wordy, and become sentences, and separating smaller stories on the pages may have been done by bulky lines. One of the rules of the category is use of color, and a shaded or color box may bring better separation. But this was one great paper to view. THIRD PLACE Spectator, Fredonia Central High School Great cover on each entry; uses color to separate elements of a page, and an easy read. A little too- much switching on column sizes, and going with more pictures instead of focusing on making the best picture bigger and more prominent, and this would be on top. HONORABLE MENTION Tarmac, Chaminade High School William Birkdale A fitting tribute a lost student who meant much to his classmates. PHOTOGRAPHY FIRST PLACE Brocton Review, Brocton Central School Ashley Zambotti This one checks all the boxes - Clear, clean, sharp, cropped perfectly, gets everyone that could possibly have their faces in it pointed towards camera, captures moment at right time. SECOND PLACE Spectator, Fredonia Central High School Victoria Hennessey Captures moment of play. Needs better processing of dark to keep contrast but not lose detail. THIRD PLACE Spectator, Fredonia Central High School Victoria Hennessey A couple of items kept this from being top. Some blur in the central player. If camera would have been raised to get more view of players. Captures emotion, is processed well. HONORABLE MENTION Brocton Review, Brocton Central School Madeline Brogan Clear, clean, sharp photo that is cropped perfectly. BEST SPORTS STORY FIRST PLACE Spectator, Fredonia Central High School Melinda Waag Clearest narrative out of all the entries I reviewed. Quotes from a number of relevant sources and laid out, in a straightforward way, the injury and struggle Dalton Gardner is working to overcome. SECOND PLACE Tarmac, Chaminade High School Jack Viscuso Admirably chronicles the state-championship winning season for the varsity soccer team. Includes anecdotes from the season's key moments and talked with a variety of coaches and players on the team. The story is a bit hard to follow at times, though. Moving the most important information or events (an inverted- pyramid story format) to the front would alleviate this issue. THIRD PLACE Spectator, Fredonia Central High School Gracie Morrison The framework of a good story is here, especially in the first few paragraphs. Try to dig deeper, especially during interviews. Ask "Why" and "How" questions, which might yield more vivid or interesting responses. Including a variety of voices is good, but a more focused approach might produce a better hook for readers — giving them a better understanding of the behind-the- scenes work athletes put in to make state. HONORABLE MENTION Spectator, Fredonia Central High School Jamison Horch A good job of recapping a successful football season, but there isn't a clear narrative to follow—it's mostly a string of facts presented one after another. Work on establishing a story hierarchy and emphasizing the "Why." Tell readers why they should care about your story. BEST WEB SITE FIRST PLACE Tarmac, Chaminade High School The website is very easy to navigate, pages are arranged at the top of the screen neatly and article links flow nicely. I wasn't able to find a link or info about a print version. Many newspaper companies are moving to web or publishing stories in print and electronically but should still give direction where to find both. SECOND PLACE Spectator, Fredonia Central High School The page was very appealing, but based on the template used by the district. All the past issues available to open, but not much else for content.

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