The Pendulum named best newspaper in conference best-of-show competition

The Pendulum, an Elon University student news organization, won an Apple Award for Best Newspaper (4-year school, 5,000-10,000 enrollment) from the College Media Association at its annual spring conference. The Pendulum was recognized for its Jan. 20, 2016, edition of the paper, which included coverage of Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy, a Republican debate in South Carolina, and an alumna’s role in the Broadway musical “Wicked.”

Alumni Al Drago ’15 and Colin Donohue ’05 (also Elon’s coordinator of student media and an instructor in the School of Communications) presented at the CMA conference, as well.

Drago, a photographer for Roll Call newspaper in Washington, D.C., offered a session called “Snapchat Success: Reporting Live 10 Seconds at a Time.” Drago, who has received more than 8.5 million Snapchat views, shared his insights, tips and tricks on how to generate an audience for the social sharing platform. He showed a few of his Snapchat stories and discussed the techniques he uses to build informative and amusing snaps.

Donohue participated on a panel titled “Sipping from the Fire Hydrant: Digital-First Advising on Your Schedule” that discussed how to give students timely feedback on website content, social media posts and breaking news coverage. He was joined by colleagues from Otterbein University and the Savannah College of Art and Design.

This year’s CMA conference ran from March 12-15 in New York and boasted 1,100 students. Accompanying Donohue on site were juniors Hannah Silvers (Pendulum managing editor) and Courtney Campbell (Pendulum style editor).

The Apple Awards honor work submitted by student news organizations that attend the conference. The awards are named in honor of David L. Adams, a longtime College Media Association stalwart and adviser at Indiana University, who died in 2007. Elon students last won an Apple Award in 2014 for a multimedia journalism project called “Incarceration in America.”