Ka Leo O Hawai‘i took first place in the Best of Show competition at a recent national convention for college journalists. ADVERTISING Ka Leo O Hawai‘i took first place in the Best of Show competition at a recent national convention
Ka Leo O Hawai‘i took first place in the Best of Show competition at a recent national convention for college journalists.
“This is the first time in 17 years of entering the competition that Ka Leo has won,” said Alex Bitter of Hilo, who is editor-in-chief of the University of Hawaii at Manoa newspaper. “The win is a tremendous testament to all of the desk editors who have worked hard.”
The student-operated newspaper, which has been published continuously for 92 years at the Manoa campus, entered its Oct. 20 issue in a category for four-year university, weekly tabloids. The Best of Show contest was administered during the Associated Collegiate Press/College Media Association’s 93rd annual National College Media Convention hosted Oct. 29-Nov. 2 in Philadelphia.
The nation’s largest college journalism convention was attended this year by 1,700 students and advisers from 300 university, college and community college publications and websites.
At least 10 universities entered in Ka Leo’s category. The UH-Manoa entry beat tabloids produced by student media programs at the University of Nebraska (fourth), University of Vermont (sixth) and the University of Oregon (eighth).
Ka Leo’s website (kaleo.org) also took fifth place in the Best of Show competition for news websites at large schools, placing behind schools such as the University of Texas at Arlington (first), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (second) and University of Minnesota (fourth).
The Student Media Board allocated resources to send two Ka Leo staffers, web editor Alden Alayvilla and associate copy editor Zebley Foster, to attend the conference with faculty adviser Jay Hartwell.
Editor-in-chief Bitter is a UH-Manoa junior, working toward a double major in political science and journalism. The Hilo native, a 2012 graduate of Waiakea High School, is the winner of Society of Professional Journalists summer internships at Honolulu and Hawaii Business magazines.
Earlier this year, Ka Leo’s advertising team earned two first-place honors, a second-place award and two third-place honors at the College Newpapers Business and Advertising Managers (CNBAM) convention in March in Austin, Texas.
Ka Leo is published each Monday and 10,000 copies are distributed at 135 stacks throughout campus and Honolulu. The staff also produces daily content for kaleo.org and for social media, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
