UPDATE– This story has been updated to reflect that The Northerner won third place General Excellence for student media publications.
The Northerner was recognized as Kentucky student media’s champion of open records and freedom of information at the 2024 Kentucky Press Association (KPA) Winter Convention in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
It was the first time NKU’s student media publication was recognized with the honor, and 13 additional awards were presented to The Northerner on Friday night. In total, The Northerner was awarded third place for General Excellence in student media publications.
Culminating stories from October 2022 through September 2023, The Northerner entered some of our best work into the KPA awards. Judges evaluated all the submissions from Kentucky student media publications, ranking most categories with a first, second and third place winner.
For the Jon Fleischaker Freedom of Information Award, only one student media publication is chosen to receive the honor.
The Freedom of Information Award considers work that “uses public records to shed light on an important community matter and to affect public policy change,” according to the Kentucky Press Association. The award is named after the father of Kentucky’s open meetings and open records laws, Jon Fleischaker.
The Northerner won this award for submitting articles such as “Everything we know about VP Eddie Howard’s departure from NKU so far,” “NKU withholds details over $75k settlement to former LGBTQ services director,” “Men’s basketball coach $100k pay raise strikes a chord” and more. Open records were utilized in all these articles, including documents like salary raise contracts, investigation reports and settlement documents.
While these stories may not always be the most glamorous or appealing for the university, they are truths that we believe need to be told.
Braden White, editor-in-chief of The Northerner, spoke to the dedication and detail that was put into the winning work. “It was very nerve-wracking especially when we were working on these very investigative stories that were really important stories we needed to tell,” White recalled. “Last year at this time, we didn’t even know how to file for open records. It’s crazy to see how important it is to use in your stories.”
“To me, the Freedom of Information Award is so important because it shows the initiative and persistence of student journalists. These are stories that other media are not going to cover,” said The Northerner’s adviser and professor Michele Day.
“These stories were not done lightly. They were done with just an incredible amount of thought and concern for getting things right,” Day said.
As a staff, we want to thank our readers—we wouldn’t be able to do this without your messages of support, interactions on social media, talks on campus and ideas for new stories.
To our most tenaciously-supportive faculty and staff members, we thank you. To the students who support the demanding but rewarding work of fellow students, thank you. To the alumni who continue trusting us to keep you updated on your alma mater, we thank you.
We’ll keep telling stories, we ask you to keep supporting us.
The Northerner’s Kentucky Press Association awards:
Best Breaking News Coverage – Emily Sisk, second place
Best Sports Feature Story – Emory Davis, first place
Best Enterprise or Analytical Story – Mildred Nguyen and Emily Sisk, second place
Best Enterprise or Analytical Story – Emily Sisk, third place
Best Investigative Story or Series – Mildred Nguyen and Emily Sisk, second place
Best On-going/Extended Coverage Story – Mildred Nguyen, Braden White and Emily Sisk, second place
Best Business/Agribusiness Story – Braden White, first place
Best Business/Agribusiness Story – Emily Sisk, third place
Best Lede – Emily Sisk, first place
Best Lede – Mildred Nguyen, second place
Best Video – Justis White, second place
Best Website – The Northerner staff, third place
Best Headline Writer – Killian Baarlaer, second place
2023 Jon Fleischaker Freedom of Information Award – The Northerner staff