On April 18th, Loy Norrix’s Knight Life headed to the state capital for the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association (MIPA) yearly Journalism awards. Knight Life won a total of 27 individual awards for writing, layout, graphics, and photography, and received a designation of silver for the website and bronze for the print edition.
Frankie Stevens, business manager, won both second and third place in the category of advertising layout, for advertisements she designed for J Gumbo restaurant and Dan Heintzelman photography.
“I spent a lot of time and energy on those ads, so it is very nice to be able to reap the benefits. Communication with the business isn’t always the easiest thing, and it takes a lot of focus and commitment,” said Stevens.
Head copy editor Griffin Conley won third place for his front page layout.
“It was really gratifying to see that all the work we put into the front page got recognized,” explained Conley. “Layout was originally a struggle for me and I had to learn it by myself, and throughout the year I was able to move from less important pages to the front page and get recognized for it.”
Knight Life recently underwent a significant redesign of both the website and print editions, solving many of the issues addressed by MIPA judges in 2016, including improved and more prominent photography, more graphic involvement, and less text-dense layout, as well as a transition from tabloid to broadsheet. This was reflected especially in the breadth of graphic, layout, and photography awards Knight Life received.
Knight Life also saw wins for their extensive writing, from coverage of local events to Pro/Con editorial columns. Grace Marshall, web-editor-in-chief, won 2nd place in News Writing for her coverage of KPS standardized test protests.
“I tried to take a more standard topic and help everyone to relate to it through who I quoted, and that makes any article more interesting to your readers,” said Marshall.
DJ Pierce and Nick Loken, both Knight Life contributors, also nabbed high honors, winning first place in Comic Strip and News Photography respectively.
“It was a good feeling because I wasn’t really expecting to win,” said Loken. “When I received the award, I felt like I accomplished something big.”
Details of all 27 awards won by Knight Life appear below.
MIPA Awards
Division 2
Ist Place
- DJ Pierce, Comic Strip
- Nick Loken, News Photography (sports feature photo)
- Nora Hilgart-Griff, Arts and Illustration (editorial cartoon)
2nd Place
- Frankie Stevens, News Design and Info Graphics (advertising layout)
- Grace Marshall, News Writing (news story)
3rd Place
- Frankie Stevens, News Design and Info Graphics (advertising layout)
- Hannah Pittman, News Photography (environmental portrait)
- Maggie Lager, News Writing (pro/con editorial columns)
- Isaac Rubin, News Writing (pro/con editorial columns)
- Rachel Zook, News Writing (review)
- Sidney Richardson, News Photography (photo story)
Honorable Mentions:
- Bailey Handley, News Design and Info Graphics (editorial opinion page/spread)
- Shane Harrelson, News Design and Info Graphics (editorial opinion page/spread)
- Bill Bowser, News Photography (news/feature photograph)
- Griffin Conley, News Design and Info Graphics (front page/newspaper style)
- Isaiah Patterson, Art and Illustration (comic strip)
- Josh Wild, Special Coverage (multiplatform news coverage)
- Sidney Richardson, Special Coverage (multiplatform news coverage)
- Maggie Lager, News Writing (information feature)
- Maggie Lager, News Writing (alternative story form)
- Maggie Lager, News Design (entertainment page/spread)
- Max Link, News Writing (news brief)
- Morgan McCue, News Photography (sports action photo)
- Rachel Zook, News Design and Info Graphics (story package)
- Sidney Richardson, News Writing (sports feature story)
- Sidney Richardson, News Writing (review)
- Sidney Richardson, News Photography (news feature/photograph)
