The Daily takes home nine awards at annual convention

The Daily Northwestern received nine awards, including second place for general excellence in the daily newspaper category, at this weekend's 20th Annual Illinois College Press Association Convention.

Students from 32 Illinois college newspapers descended on the Chicago Sheraton Friday and Saturday to hear keynote addresses from Chicago Tribune columnists Eric Zorn and Bob Greene, Medill '69, and attend sessions on newswriting, political reporting, newspaper design and sportswriting.

The convention concluded Saturday afternoon with a luncheon where college newspapers received awards in 64 different categories representing dailies, non-dailies at colleges with more than 4,000 students and non-dailies at colleges with less than 4,000 students.

The staff of Northern Illinois University's newspaper, The Northern Star, took first place in the general excellence category. The Daily, which won the honor the previous two years, received second place.

First place in the open category for opinion pages went to Editor in Chief Casey Newton and Forum editors Dan Schwerin and Matt Barbas.

"I'm very honored and I think it's a real validation for all the hard work our columnists and cartoonists have put in all year," said Schwerin, a Weinberg sophomore.

Medill junior Emily Badger received first place for Sports Feature Story and second place for Sports News Story.

Daily cartoonist Alex Thomas received an honorable mention for his comic strip, Bottom of the Food Chain, in the comic strip category.

Honorable mention awards also went to Nina Krauss for feature page layout and to Sasha Talcott for news story in the dailies category.

Daily photographer Pat Michels received third place in both the feature photo and sports photo categories.

Keynote speakers Greene and Zorn spoke Friday afternoon. Zorn said almost anybody can write a story or a headline, but to be a journalist takes courage and the ability to stand by one's convictions.

"Whether you're covering sports or politics or fires or car crashes or a curriculum committee, do it fearlessly and in spite of those who would choke off the flow of information and ideas," Zorn said.