UPbeat

News for and about University of Portland faculty and staff.

Nancy Copic

The Beacon: Third In U.S. for Best University Student Publication

Student media advisor Nancy Copic, student activities, reports that that The Beacon has placed third nationally for Best University Student Publication in the Catholic Press Association 2020 Media Awards. DePaul University placed first and University of Dayton placed second.

Both of those programs have strong journalism curricula, so once again the University of Portland can consider it a point of pride to see The Beacon so highly regarded. The awards will be announced publicly in June. For more information use this link.

Beacon Staffers Shine Again

The Society of Professional Journalists Region 10 Mark of Excellence Awards were announced recently, and UP students journalists were named as winners and finalists in the following categories:

  • Breaking news photography – Jennifer Ng
  • Feature writing – Catherine Cieminski
  • Editorial writing – Dora Totoian, Delaney Vetter and Gabi DiPaulo
  • General news reporting – Madison Pfeifer
  • In-depth reporting – Austin De Dios
  • Online/digital feature videography – Elizabeth Lyons-Best

The Society of Professional Journalists Region 10 comprises Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. First-place winners will compete at the national level among other regional MOE winners from twelve SPJ regions.

Regional winners would normally be recognized at regional conferences, however, all SPJ Regional Conferences have been either canceled or postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Regional winners have been notified by email and will receive their award certificates via mail. National winners will be notified in the late spring.

For more information contact Nancy Copic, student activities, at copic@up.edu.

Beacon Wins Mark of Excellence Awards

Student journalists for the University’s news source, The Beacon, have been chosen as Mark of Excellence regional winners by the Society of Professional Journalists in the following categories:

  • Breaking news photography – Jennifer Ng
  • Feature writing – Catherine Cieminski
  • Editorial writing – Dora Totoian, Delaney Vetter and Gabi DiPaulo
  • General news reporting – Madison Pfeifer
  • In-depth reporting – Austin De Dios
  • Online/digital feature videography – Elizabeth Lyons-Best

First-place winners will compete at the national level among other regional MOE winners from the 12 SPJ regions.

For more information contact Nancy Copic, student activities, at copic@up.edu.

 

“The Beacon” Wins CSPA Crown Award

The University’s digital student run news source, The Beacon, is among twenty-five digital publications chosen as finalists for the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) Crown Awards, to be presented in March 2019 at ceremonies in New York City.  The digital publications were published during the 2017-18 academic year.

The Crown Awards honor top student publications chosen from CSPA’s members. Crowns are selected for overall excellence in a head-to-head comparison. Student publishing in news, magazine, yearbook or digital (online) formats are all eligible.  During Crown consideration, publications are judged on their excellence as shown by their design, photography, concept, coverage and writing. A total of 1,100 publications were eligible for judging. This latest honor comes on the heels of Beacon wins in the College Media Association Pinnacle Awards in November.

For more information contact Nancy Copic, student activities, at copic@up.edu.

 

 

Beacon wins eight Gold Circle Awards for Digital Media

The Columbia Scholastic Press Association, based at Columbia University in New York City, has awarded The Beacon eight Gold Circle Awards for Digital Media. This national competition covers content published by student-run college media organizations during the 2016- 2017 academic year. The Beacon placed in the following categories: spot news photograph, sports photograph, editorial writing, breaking news, news writing (planned), general or humor commentary, informational graphics and interactive graphics. The Beacon also won certificates of merit for news feature, sports feature, and personality profile.

For more information see the article at this link or contact Nancy Copic, student activities, at copic@up.edu.

Big Wins for The Beacon

The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) just announced winners and finalists in its Mark of Excellence Awards for college media in Region 10, which is made up of colleges and universities in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Alaska. The Beacon won nine First Place awards, and those winners advance to the national SPJ Mark of Excellence competition in these categories:

  • Best Digital-Only Student Publication – Beacon staff
  • Online Feature Reporting  –Rachel Ramirez
  • In-Depth Reporting* – Clare Duffy, Hannah Sievert, Cheyenne Schoen, Rachel Rippetoe
  • Breaking News* – Rachel Rippetoe
  • General News Reporting* – Claire Desmarais, Brennan Robinson
  • Sports Writing* – Ben Arthur
  • General Column Writing* – Rachel Rippetoe (columns on Harvey Weinstein, the Obamas, the media)
  • Feature Writing* –Hannah Sievert
  • Feature Photography*- Annika Gordon

*Category is for universities with fewer than 10,000 students. 

National winners will be announced later this spring and recognized at the SPJ Excellence in Journalism conference in Baltimore this September.

The Beacon also placed as a regional finalist (Second or Third place) in four categories:

  • Feature Writing* – Olivia Sanchez
  • Editorial Writing: Rachel Rippetoe, Olivia Sanchez, Dora Totoian and Owen Price (editorials: cultural appropriation at Halloween, Greek life FOMO, climate change)
  • Sports Writing* – Ben Arthur
  • Online/Digital News Videography – Cheyenne Schoen

For more information contact Nancy Copic, student activities, at copic@up.edu.

 

The Beacon Debuts Weekly Newsletter

beaconMany staff and faculty accustomed to reading The Beacon every Thursday in the past have asked how to keep up with the now all-digital Beacon. One convenient way is the new weekly Beacon e-mail newsletter, which includes headlines and links to articles, commentary, photos, videos, and other multimedia.
If you would like to receive The Beacon in your inbox every Wednesday night, sign up with your e-mail address here.
Alternatively, you can also receive regular news feeds from The Beacon via Facebook by liking  The Beacon page.
 
For more information contact Nancy Copic, student activities, at x7470 or copic@up.edu.

Beacon Amasses Awards, Internships, Says Goodbye to Print

Beacon New York 20116.JPGThe Beacon has won four regional Mark of Excellence Awards from the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and advances to the national competition in the following categories: General News Reporting, In-Depth Reporting, Online Sports Reporting, and Photo Illustration. The regional competition involved student media from universities in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska with enrollment under 10,000. National winners will be announced at the SPJ convention in New Orleans in September.

Also, the College Media Association awarded the Beacon Second Place in the Apple Awards for Best Newspaper from schools with fewer than 5000 students. First Place went to Rice University’s student newspaper.

Additionally, several Beacon staffers have landed selective media internships this summer. Malika Andrews will intern at the Denver Post as part of the elite Sports Journalism Institute. The Charles Snowden Program for Excellence in Journalism has awarded paid internships to Clare Duffy (the Bend Bulletin) and Cheyenne Schoen (Klamath Falls Herald and News). Ben Arthur will intern for the sports department of KOIN-TV (CBS).

The Beacon just published its final print edition and is preparing to go all-digital in the 2016-17 academic year with a new, fast-loading website and improved mobile app. Stay tuned!

For more information, contact Nancy Copic, student activities, at copic@up.edu.

Beacon Content Switching To All-Digital, Fall 2016

beacon articleThe University’s student-run weekly newspaper, The Beacon, has announced that all content will be available exclusively online and the print edition will be eliminated starting in the 2016-2017 academic year.

Last fall, The Beacon launched a mobile app, and the newly redesigned website racked up more than 215,000 page views between October 1, 2014 and October 3 of this year. In contrast, The Beacon distributes 1,750 printed copies on campus and to home-delivery subscribers each week. This semester, the weekly print edition reduced its page count from 16 to 12 to further focus on digital coverage.

To produce the print edition, the editorial board spends roughly 40 hours a week working on layout and design. By being exclusively online, Beacon staff will have more time to focus on content creation.

For more information contact Nancy Copic, student activities, at 7470 or copic@up.edu.

Malika Andrews Named As Finalist For National Writing Award

malikaBeacon sports editor Malika Andrews has been named as a finalist for the national Associated Collegiate Press Sports Story of the Year Award for her story, “His Way Out,” about Pilot basketball player Korey Thielke (http://tinyurl.com/puf636k). She joins finalists from Harvard, Stanford, and many major universities with long-established journalism programs. Each year the Associated Collegiate Press presents the Individual Awards, honoring the best individuals in collegiate journalism. Entries are judged by teams of professionals with experience and expertise in the area of each particular contest. Winners will be announced at the end of the October at the ACP conference in Austin, Texas.

For more information contact Nancy Copic, student activities, at 7470 or copic@up.edu.