{"id":2301,"date":"2025-04-21T15:28:03","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T20:28:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jmcjournal.org\/?p=2301"},"modified":"2025-04-21T15:28:03","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T20:28:03","slug":"the-murray-state-news-wins-big-at-the-kentucky-press-association-convention-in-lexington-kentucky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jmcjournal.org\/?p=2301","title":{"rendered":"The Murray State News\u00a0wins big at the Kentucky Press Association convention in Lexington, Kentucky"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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MURRAY, Ky. \u2013\u00a0The Murray State News<\/em>\u00a0won 45 awards, including first place in its division and College Journalist of the Year, at the Kentucky Press Association (KPA) convention Jan. 24 in Lexington, Kentucky.

The Murray State News<\/em>\u00a0won first place in Student Publications 1, the division for schools under 10,000 enrollment.\u00a0Kristopher Fister, photography editor for\u00a0The Murray State News<\/em>, won Journalist of the Year in the college division, which included all Kentucky schools. Fister, a senior graphic communications media major from Murray, won eight awards, including sweeping the sports photography category and winning three first-place awards. Fister is the first Murray State student to win this honor.

The News<\/em>\u00a0last won its division in 2020. This year, The News<\/em> won 15 first-place awards, 13 second-place awards, seven third-place awards and seven certificates of merit this year. The 45 awards are the most\u00a0The News<\/em>\u00a0has received from KPA.\u201cThese student journalists have put in an incredible amount of work to produce high-quality journalism, and it\u2019s nice to see their efforts recognized and awarded,\u201d said Leigh Landini Wright, adviser. \u201cI\u2019m especially proud that we won our division, and one of our staffers won the top individual award of Journalist of the Year.\u201d

The News<\/em>\u00a0has a long tradition of excellence with awards at the state and national level. Beginning in 1927 as\u00a0The College News<\/em>, it has seen many changes in newspaper page sizes and format.\u00a0The News<\/em>\u00a0transitioned last year from a weekly newspaper to a digital-first online publication with monthly printed publications and two specialty publications (Gateway<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Racer Guide<\/em>). The digital-first model has allowed student journalists to showcase their skills in photography, videography, podcasts, audio pieces and social media, as well as writing.

\u201cThe fact that we swept the multimedia\/social media category speaks to the changing nature of presenting the news,\u201d Wright said. \u201cThe winning entry came from an audio piece produced during the eclipse last year. The piece included a digital (written) component and photos. I tell students that you have to be able to tell the story in multiple ways.\u201dThe News<\/em>\u00a0is student-produced and student-run. Bri Hunter, editor in chief, said she is proud of the staff\u2019s hard work that they put into the print and digital versions of\u00a0The Murray State News<\/em>.

\u201cEveryone works very well as a team and we are always looking for ways to soar above the standard,\u201d Hunter said. \u201cI am thankful to our adviser as well for her guidance in what we produce, because this is a learning environment and it helps us student journalists perfect our skill before we hit the real world.\u201dKPA also recognized advisers from the seven Kentucky student media organizations that collaborated on an editorial about anti-DEI legislation proposed in last year\u2019s legislative session. The collaborative effort earned the organizations a Pacemaker finalist designation, one of the highest awards in student journalism.

KPA presented the advisers with the Russ Metz Most Valuable Member Award for their work with student journalists.

KPA Journalist of the Year, College Division
\u25cf Kristopher Fister\u00a0

Russ Metz Most Valuable Member Award
\u25cf Leigh Landini Wright, adviser\u00a0

First Place Awards
\u25cf Jill Smith, best breaking news coverage
\u25cf Scottlynn Ballard, best feature story
\u25cf Zach Simmons, best sports feature
\u25cf Ania Boutin, best enterprise or analytical story
\u25cf Jill Smith, best investigative story or series
\u25cf Scottlynn Ballard, best use of social media or multimedia
\u25cf Ania Boutin, best video
\u25cf Emma Fisher, best breaking news photo
\u25cf Sam Mitchell, best general news photo
\u25cf Rebeca Mertins Chiodini, best feature picture
\u25cf Kristopher Fister, best picture essay (breaking, general or feature)
\u25cf Kristopher Fister, best sports picture
\u25cf Rebeca Mertins Chiodini, best sports picture essay
\u25cf Staff, best special section\/sports special section
\u25cf Kristopher Fister, best front page\u00a0Second place awards
\u25cf Ben Overby, best feature story
\u25cf Ben Overby, best columnist
\u25cf Jakob Milani, best sports feature
\u25cf Jordan Spaulding, best enterprise or analytical story
\u25cf River Murt, best investigative story or series
\u25cf Aly Adler, best use of social media or multimedia
\u25cf Kristopher Fister, best breaking news photo
\u25cf Kristopher Fister, best general news photo
\u25cf Staff, best picture essay (breaking, general or feature)
\u25cf Kristopher Fister, best sports picture
\u25cf Kristopher Fister, best sports picture essay
\u25cf Jakob Milani and Jill Smith, best special section\/best sports special section
\u25cf Jill Smith, best headline\u00a0Third place awards
\u25cf Jill Smith, best sports feature
\u25cf Jill Smith, best enterprise or analytical story
\u25cf Jill Smith, best lede
\u25cf Drayton Charlton-Perrin, best use of social media or multimedia
\u25cf Kristopher Fister, best general news photo
\u25cf MacKenzie Rogers and Rebeca Mertins Chiodini, best picture essay (breaking, general
or feature)
\u25cf Kristopher Fister, best sports picture\u00a0Certificate of merit
\u25cf Scottlynn Ballard, best editorial writer
\u25cf Jakob Milani, best sports story
\u25cf Staff, best on-going, extended coverage story
\u25cf Scottlynn Ballard, best business\/agriculture story
\u25cf Staff, best website
\u25cf Jakob Milani and Zach Simmons, best sports section
\u25cf Nate Hunt, best editorial page

\u00a0Second Place Awards
\u25cf Ben Overby, best feature story
\u25cf Ben Overby, best columnist
\u25cf Jakob Milani, best sports feature
\u25cf Jordan Spaulding, best enterprise or analytical story
\u25cf River Murt, best investigative story or series
\u25cf Aly Adler, best use of social media or multimedia
\u25cf Kristopher Fister, best breaking news photo
\u25cf Kristopher Fister, best general news photo
\u25cf Staff, best picture essay (breaking, general or feature)
\u25cf Kristopher Fister, best sports picture
\u25cf Kristopher Fister, best sports picture essay
\u25cf Jakob Milani and Jill Smith, best special section\/best sports special section
\u25cf Jill Smith, best headline

Third Place Awards
\u25cf Jill Smith, best sports feature
\u25cf Jill Smith, best enterprise or analytical story
\u25cf Jill Smith, best lede
\u25cf Drayton Charlton-Perrin, best use of social media or multimedia
\u25cf Kristopher Fister, best general news photo
\u25cf MacKenzie Rogers and Rebeca Mertins Chiodini, best picture essay (breaking, general
or feature)
\u25cf Kristopher Fister, best sports picture

Certificate of Merit
\u25cf Scottlynn Ballard, best editorial writer
\u25cf Jakob Milani, best sports story
\u25cf Staff, best on-going, extended coverage story
\u25cf Scottlynn Ballard, best business\/agriculture story
\u25cf Staff, best website
\u25cf Jakob Milani and Zach Simmons, best sports section
\u25cf Nate Hunt, best editorial page<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  MURRAY, Ky. \u2013\u00a0The Murray State News\u00a0won 45 awards, including first place in its division and College Journalist of the Year, at the Kentucky Press Association (KPA) convention Jan. 24 in Lexington, Kentucky. The Murray State News\u00a0won first place in Student Publications 1, the division for schools under 10,000 enrollment.\u00a0Kristopher Fister, photography editor for\u00a0The Murray […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2303,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","eq-blocks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmcjournal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmcjournal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmcjournal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmcjournal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmcjournal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2301"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jmcjournal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2304,"href":"https:\/\/jmcjournal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2301\/revisions\/2304"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmcjournal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jmcjournal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmcjournal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jmcjournal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}