Berkeley Beacon Wins Associated College Press Awards for Best Website and Newspaper

Left to right, top to bottom: Visual Managing Editor Kyle Bray, Editor-in-Chief Maya Gacina, Copy Managing Editor Monika Davis, Opinion Editor Katie Schmidt, Living Arts Editor Caroline Broderick, News Editor Chris Van Buskirk, Business Manager Allison Hagan, and Sports Editor Aaron Miller.

The Berkeley Beacon staff won two awards at the Associated College Press’ Midwinter National College Journalism Convention, which was held February 28 through March 3 in La Jolla, California. The Beacon won second place for best website for four-year colleges with 10,000 students or less, and ninth place in four-year colleges publishing one issue per week.

“It means a lot to us that we received these awards at the conference, which included more than 60 colleges and universities across the U.S. We revamped our website last year and it symbolized a big step to launch the Beacon, a weekly print publication, into a daily news outlet that the Emerson community could refer to when looking for information related to the college, themselves and the surrounding Boston area,” said current Beacon Editor-in-Chief Maya Gacina ’21.

Gacina said the Beacon staff found the convention very useful to network with other college newspapers, advisors and student journalists. In conference workshops attendees learn how to increase circulation, boost social media coverage, and enhance readers’ viewing experiences by utilizing graphics and layouts.