The Feather Online received for the sixth time in a row the All-American distinction from the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA), Dec. 7. The publications are judged in five categories: Coverage and Content, Interactivity and Community, Breaking News, Design and Navigation and Rich Media.
According to the NSPA, the organization usually awards the All-American ranking to about 15 percent of all the newspapers they critique. This is the sixth year in a row The Feather has been awarded an All-American designation from the NSPA with Marks of Distinction in four/five categories.
Fresno Christian’s online student newspaper scored marks of distinction in four out of the five essential categories; Coverage and Content, Interactivity and Community, Design and Navigation, and Rich Media. The Feather Online lacked one mark of distinction in Breaking News.
There are two additional sections, Frequency of Update and Student Work Credit, where publications may earn more points towards their paper. Coupling the points earned from the five essential sections and the two additional sections, The Feather Online received 3,645/4,300 points.
I admire the way your site looks, the navigation style you’ve chosen, and the amount of content present. It is difficult to provide this many updates, and you post daily-with great content. With a few minor tweaks, I would honestly say that your site will be one of the best in the country. Well done. — T. Shepard, NSPA Judge
Proud of the work that his staff was able to accomplish from behind the scenes, Feather adviser Greg Stobbe comments on the commitment of his writers and editors.
“Given the risk and the staff’s desire to completely redo The Feather website,” Stobbe said, “I am proud of their commitment and determination to not accept excuses during the six months the paper was being recreated. The willingness to work outside of the lab and the countless hours it took behind the scenes to reformat past data while also producing new material is to be commended. The three seniors (Chloe Mueller, Rees Roggenstein, Joshua Carter), who lead the staff have a passion and commitment to excellence that is infectious among the staff members.”
A lone judge from the NSPA evaluates publications on their merit for the All-American distinction. Judge T. Shepard (First name withheld) commented on the new website design and potential as a newspaper.
“I admire the way your site looks, the navigation style you’ve chosen, and the amount of content present,” Shepard said. “It is difficult to provide this many updates, and you post daily-with great content. With a few minor tweaks, I would honestly say that your site will be one of the best in the country. Well done.”
Feather staff-writer Alexander Rurik hopes that The Feather will improve and change the website to the judges suggestions.
“I think it’s cool that we got the All-American,” Rurik said. “But I don’t think we should stop there; we need to work harder towards getting the Pacemaker. Hopefully we can improve and show our worth to the judges.”
Upon receiving the review, Editor-in-Chief, Chloe Mueller, expresses her excitement and satisfaction with the overall report.
“I’m very content with our score this year,” Mueller said. “Our ranking shows how hard we’ve been working as a staff. I’m very impressed with everyone that works alongside myself on The Feather. To pull this off with less than 50 students is remarkable, and I’m very proud of our progress so far.”
FC’s 2015 website critique scores:
Coverage and Content: 900/1,000
Interactivity and Community: 800/1,000
Breaking News: 420/500
Design and Navigation: 830/1,000
Rich Media: 410/500
Student work credit: 85/100
Frequency of update: 200/200
Total score: 3,645/4,300
Check out The Feather’s 2014 NSPA critique. For previous NSPA reports, BREAKING: Feather earns NSPA All-American rating. Earlier last month, The Feather Online also received notification that the Columbia Scholastic Press Association nominated the campus newspaper for a 2016 Crown award. This honor will either be a Gold or Silver with the color unveiled during the March 2016 CSPA national journalism convention.
