The Ithacan and ICTV's Newswatch16 were named best in the Northeast in their respective categories by the Society of Professional Journalists. The Ithacan took first place in the best nondaily newspaper category, while Newswatch16 won for best nondaily television news broadcast.
The Ithacan has been named best in the Northeast five times in the past seven years and best in the nation in 1999. This year it was also named best weekly college newspaper in New York State by the New York Press Association.
Newswatch16 won the SPJ Northeast regional award in 2001 and was awarded second place in the region last year. This is the first time both have been finalists for the national Mark of Excellence award in the same year. The winners of that competition will be announced in the fall. A November 20 newscast of the show, produced by Michael Geller '05 and directed by D. John Cook '04, also received first place for newscasts in the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' College Television Awards, also known as the "collegiate Emmys." This was the first year the competition has had a separate newcast category and the first time an IC television production has won.
"Rarely have we seen a college news operation be able to pull off news/sports/weather so smoothly," the SPJ judges said of Newswatch16, and about the newspaper one wrote: "The Ithacan is an absolutely fabulous paper. . . . After reading the Ithacan, I wish I'd gone to Ithaca College."
