‘Reporter’ wins multiple awards

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Reporter, the student-run magazine at Rochester Institute of Technology, has won several Mark of Excellence Awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and awards from the 2016 Better Newspaper Contest given by the New York Press Association.

“Reporter’s staff is comprised of some of the most outstanding people I have ever worked with, on or off RIT’s campus,” said Mandi Moon, an MBA student from Frewsburg, N.Y., who was Reporter’s editor-in-chief from April 2016 until March of this year. “I’m so proud of everything we’ve accomplished and I’m glad I got to be a part of it.”

For the Mark of Excellence Awards, the newspaper competed with others from Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, eastern Pennsylvania and New York. The entries are judged by professionals with at least three years of journalism experience.

Reporter was named “winner” in the following categories:

• Photo illustration: Haunted Rochester, by Rob Rauchwerger and Alyssa Minko.
• Sports photography: Mud Tug XXI, by Alexa Forberg.
• Feature photography: The Chris Percentile, by Dominique Hessert.
• Online opinion and commentary: Reporter Magazine Opinion and Commentary, by Mandi Moon.

Reporter was named “finalist” in the following categories:

• Non-fiction magazine article: Safe Spaces, Safe Places, by Kevin Zampieron.
• Feature writing: Art on Campus: From Restroom Stalls to Campus Quads, by Rozie Yeghiazarian.
• Best affiliated website: Reporter Magazine Website, by Joe Jankowiak and Peter Willis.

Reporter also won awards in the 2016 Better Newspaper Contest by the New York Press Association, which receives approximately 4,000 entries each year:

• First place: Design.
• Second place: Feature story, Kevin Zampieron.
• Third place: Sports coverage.

Reporter has a regular staff of 20, with a rotating staff of about 30 freelance writers, photographers and illustrators, Moon said. The 32-page, full-color print magazine is published every month, and new stories appear on their website multiple times a week. Reporter began at RIT in 1951 as a newspaper and converted to a magazine-style publication in 1959.

Rudy Pugliese, a professor in RIT’s School of Communication, has served as Reporter’s faculty adviser for two decades.

“Reporter long ran out of wall space for all of the plaques and certificates won throughout the decades, but winning never gets old,” he said. “What is new is that Reporter is now being honored by the Society of Professional Journalists, the oldest professional association of journalists in the country.”