The UAA student newspaper, The Northern Light, wins seven awards in statewide competition

by Kathleen McCoy  |   

Newspaper competes against Anchorage Press, Frontiersmen, Alaska Star

The University of Alaska Anchorage student-run newspaper, The Northern Light, recently received seven awards presented by the Alaska Press Club at its annual awards banquet on Saturday, April 21. One of the awards included a third-place for best weekly newspaper in Alaska. This is the second consecutive year the newspaper has placed in the best weekly newspaper category.

The Northern Light competed against other small newspapers such as the Anchorage Press, the Frontiersmen, the Alaska Star, University of Alaska Fairbanks' Sun Star, and newspapers from Homer, Kodiak, Nome and Skagway. "This student publication outclassed professional entries with its attention to elements that too many stories lack: enterprise and conflict," wrote judge Nigel Jaquis, a Pulitzer prize-winning investigative reporter.

Individual awards included managing editor James Halpin's first-place win for education reporting and another first-place award for short feature writing. Features editor Mary Lochner won a third-place award for her former column, "Life in the Box." Sports editor Jessica Allman won first-place in sports news reporting, while reporter Rachael Fisher won second-place in the same category. Former sports editor Hannah Guillaume won first-place for best sports feature. All entries, except for the third-place best weekly newspaper award, won in the small newspaper category.

These winning articles are available online at www.thenorthernlight.org:

• "Bean's Café offers hope to Anchorage's homeless," by James Halpin
• "Union: Mat-Su threatens to fire overpaid teachers," by James Halpin
• "Life in the Box," by Mary Lochner
• "UAA women's hockey to skate again," by Jessica Allman
• "Alumnus to coach Lady Seawolves," by Rachael Fisher
• "UAF graduate shares Iditarod experiences, expectations," by Hannah
Guillaume

Creative Commons License "The UAA student newspaper, The Northern Light, wins seven awards in statewide competition" is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.