printable versionStanford Report takes gold in international competition
Stanford Report has won the 2006 gold medal for "print internal audience tabloids" in an international competition held by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).
The council is an organization of professionals in communications, alumni relations and development at educational institutions around the globe. With more than 3,200 member colleges, universities and independent elementary and secondary schools in 55 countries, it is the largest nonprofit education association based on institutional membership.
The annual competition is called the Circle of Excellence Awards Program. Judges award grand gold, gold, silver and bronze medals in 40 categories that cover areas such as alumni relations, new media, student recruitment, periodicals and fundraising.
Stanford Report "easily came to the forefront of first-class communications pieces," according to the judges' report. "One judge said that the Stanford paper seemed like a true city newspaper and that she would read it even if she had few ties to that campus."
In the category of internal audience periodicals, for which there were about 55 entries (including Stanford Report), "the judges' decisions about the winners boiled down to honest and clear communications," the report said. "The winners rigorously informed their various audiences in an honest way."
The report said many institutions that submitted entries in this category described their publications' objectives using "marketspeak." "Phrases such as 'key messages,' 'target audience,' etc., seemed to be the order of the day. Internal audiences quickly see through these types of communications and feel used rather than informed. There is nothing complex about communicating effectively with internal audiences. Good communications truly boils down to an attempt to keep faculty, staff and students honestly informed about the events and issues that shape a particular campus."
The University of Western Ontario in Canada won the grand gold medal for its tabloid, Western News. "The Western Ontario tabloid was not pretty, which caused pause among the two graphic design and one photographer judge," the report said. "However, the courage shown in this paper should be a model for all internal communications that seek to create credible, believable periodicals for their campus constituents."
It added: "After reading the Western Ontario and Stanford tabloids, the judges believed that the editors had respect for their readers and provided content that not only informed but also challenged them."
Johns Hopkins Medicine walked away with a silver medal for its tabloid, Dome. No bronze medals in the internal audience periodical category were awarded.
Stanford Report also won a gold medal in this competition in 2002. "Within the Stanford community, we have known for some time that the Stanford Report is a very special publication," said Alan Acosta, director of university communications. "The fact that the newspaper has now been honored by its peers with a gold medal twice in the last five years is an indication of just how fortunate we are to have such an exceptional publication in our midst."
Judges based their decisions on the following criteria: objectives of the tabloid-publishing program; writing, editing and article selection; design; navigation (for web-based periodicals); creativity; staffing; understanding of the target audience(s); the institution's mission and how well it is communicated; and budget and use of available resources.
The work of the grand gold medalists and gold medalists, including Stanford Report, will be on display at the 2006 CASE Annual Assembly: Summit for Advancement Leaders in New York City July 9-11. For more information about this event, visit the web at http://www.case.org/conferences/summit/about.cfm.