For the second year in a row, The Minaret, the University of Tampa’s student newspaper, was named Best College Newspaper in the Florida College Press Association’s (FCPA) 2008 Better Newspaper Contest. This was only the second year for the FCPA contest.

Second place was The Spinnaker, University of North Florida, and third place was
The FAMUAN, Florida A&M University.

There were six award categories including best feature writing, best photography, best sports story and the best college newspaper. The Minaret won a total of six awards this year, while The FAMUAN won a total of five awards.

“College journalists in the state are really producing some terrific work, and it’s exciting to recognize the best of what they’re doing through our contest,” said Brian Thompson, president of FCPA and adviser to the Flagler College Gargoyle in St. Augustine.

For a complete listing of award winners, click here.

The Florida College Press Association is teaming up with the Society of Professional Journalists for a spring conference in South Florida called “Unconventional 2009.”

The conference will be April 3-4 in Hollywood, Florida, and organizers are promising it won’t be anything like typical media conferences.

For more information, visit www.spjchapters.org/southflorida or contact Michael Koretzky at
michael@koretzky.com

Florida College Press has announced the winners of its first Better Newspaper Contest Awards.

The contest was judged by active and former editors, publishers and photographers from newspapers that are members of the Florida Press Association.

Check out all the winners by clicking here.

Thanks to Greg Linch at the University of Miami, FCPA is now a group on Facebook. Check it out.

Florida College Press is all about exchanging ideas, seeing what others are doing, and, what the heck, even bragging a little bit about your work. Have you done some topnotch investigative work? Has a photographer shot something extraordinary? Are you blown away by some illustration or info graphic your staff produced? Tell us about it and send us a link. We’ll try and post all of it here on this page. And keep checking back to see what other papers are doing around the state.

Are you a college or university newspaper in Florida? Well, maybe not you personally, but Florida College Press is open to newspapers at any of Florida’s colleges and universities. Find out how to become a member by clicking here.