The Daily Mississippian staff won first-place honors for best newspaper and best website in the Society of Professional Journalists Region 12 Mark of Excellence competition.
“I’m so proud of the work our staff has done this year, especially with so much important news that we have covered,” said Daniel Payne, Daily Mississippian editor-in-chief. “It’s great to see the hard work that so many editors, reporters, photographers and designers do for our community recognized. We do it because we really care about our campus and town, but it’s always great to see that hard work — both in print and online — win awards.”
Student Media Center. Photo by Thomas Graning/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services
SPJ Region 12 includes universities in four states: Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas and Louisiana. The Daily Mississippian was named Best All-Around Non-Daily Student Newspaper for an entry that included three print newspapers published in 2019. The category is for newspapers published in print fewer than four days a week.
Daily Mississippian staff members
University of Mississippi students won a total of 13 awards in the Region 12 contest – seven for first place, six for finalists.
SPJ awards one winner and two finalists in each category. First-place winners are automatically entered into the national SPJ contest, competing against first-place winners in the other 11 regions. National winners and finalists are usually announced in May.
Other Region 12 first-place wins for UM students: best use of multimedia for a student media multiple-platform entry; Billy Schuerman, first place for sports photography; Daniel Payne, Eliza Noe and Kenneth Niemeyer for general news reporting; Will Stribling for radio news reporting; Devna Bose for online news reporting.
The six finalists: NewsWatch Ole Miss for best all-around newscast; Skye Spiehler and Brianna Florez for television in-depth reporting; Grant Gibbons and Carson McKinney for online sports reporting; Meagan Harkins for online news reporting; Daniel Payne for newspaper general news reporting; Billy Schuerman for breaking news photography.
