DN|Blog

A bite of the (big) apple

Posted March 19th, 2006. By Dave Studinski. In From the Editor.

NEW YORK CITY — Seven members of the Daily News Staff, DN Adviser Vince Filak and I are closing out our stay in New York City for the Spring 2006 College Media Advisers Convention.

In our print edition, we make a habit of not tooting our own horn too often. As journalists, we’re not to be the point of the story … however, in some situations we, too, make news. In the interest of letting you know what we’ve been up to, I think it’s fair to mention why eight key members of our staff hopped a flight to NYC Wednesday.

The Ball State Daily News received two of the highest collegiate media honors for the second consecutive year Saturday. For Fall Semester 2004 and Spring Semester 2005, the DN picked up two Columbia Scholastic Press Association Gold Crown awards.

As for our individual staff members, the DN received a total of 34 Gold Circle awards in categories ranging from newswriting to page design - the most of any school nationwide.

It’s our prideful time for our staff, as well as 2004-05 Academic Year Editor in Chief Cole McGrath and Managing Editor Shawn Barkdull. It also reflects upon 2005 Summer Editor and current Managing Editor Justin Hesser. The majority of these awards reflect their time span and staff, with a handful of the Gold Circle awards coming from staff members this academic year (2005-06).

In the scheme of things, these awards are trivial to the general public. To staff members, the awards represent the acknowledgement of hard work and service. For the public though, these awards are lengthy names on shiny wooden plaques. Don’t get me wrong - The Gold Crown is a great honor, journalistically, to receive - and we’re proud to have earned it. Nonetheless, our true objective, outside of education, is not receiving awards. What’s most important is how the DN serves its readers.

While in addition to the aforementioned names above and the volunteer and paid staffs of hundreds over the last year and a half, thanks are also in order to Ball State University’s Department of Journalism, College for Communication, Information and Media as well as the BSU administrators, faculty and staff that support such a free and open student press tradition on our campus.

So, on this St. Patrick’s Day weekend, here’s to all those who put their heart and soul into this paper as well as the readers who depend on it every day.

From New York - Cheers!