WKU News

The College Heights Herald was awarded two Pacemaker Awards on Saturday from Associated Collegiate Press at the National College Media Convention in New Orleans.

The Herald won the Multiplatform Pacemaker for 2024, which assesses the publications across all platforms – online, print, newsletter, social media and audio and visual storytelling. The Herald also won the Newsmagazine Pacemaker for 2024 for its print edition, a monthly enterprise newsmagazine.

The Pacemaker Award is considered the top honor in collegiate journalism.

Alexandria Anderson, a senior from Indian Mound, Tennessee, was the Herald’s editor-in-chief during the 2023-24 academic year, for which the Pacemakers were awarded.

“I’m excited that the College Heights Herald won two Pacemakers this year, but I am especially glad to see the Herald win the Multiplatform Pacemaker,” said Chuck Clark, director of WKU Student Publications. “The Multiplatform Pacemaker is arguably the most significant because it judges a news organization’s level of excellence across all the platforms it uses to cover the news.”

This was the second year in a row that the Herald won the Multiplatform Pacemaker, and the third in which it was a finalist.

The Herald also finished as a finalist for the Innovation Pacemaker for an editorial effort the newsroom led to demonstrate why diversity is important on a college campus. The finalist designation was a joint entry for the Herald and four other ACP-member newsrooms, the Eastern Progress at Eastern Kentucky University, the Murray State News at Murray State University, The Northerner at Northern Kentucky University and the Kentucky Kernel at the University of Kentucky. Two other college newsrooms that are not ACP members also participated, the Louisville Cardinal at the University of Louisville and the Thorobred News at Kentucky State University.

The two Pacemakers awarded to the Herald this weekend are the 24^th and 25^th the Herald has won since its first in 1981. They are the 48^th and 49^th to be awarded to WKU Student Publications since the Talisman, then a yearbook, won WKU’s first Pacemaker in 1978. All together, the Herald has won 25 Pacemakers, the Talisman 22, and Student Publications Advertising and Cherry Creative have won two.

Both the Herald and the Talisman, now a life and culture magazine, are in the ACP Hall of Fame and both are in The Pacemaker 100, the most successful student media outlets in the century-long history of the Pacemaker Awards. The Herald is No. 6 on the all-time Pacemaker list.

Since 2020-21, WKU Student Publications has earned 12 Pacemaker awards, the most of any college media group in the country during that time. Eight have gone to the Herald, two to the Talisman and two to Cherry Creative and Student Publication Advertising.

Here are the awards WKU Student Publications brought home from the New Orleans convention:

ACP Pacemaker Awards

• Multiplatform Pacemaker winner – College Heights Herald
• Newsmagazine Pacemaker winner – College Heights Herald
• Innovation Pacemaker finalist – College Heights Herald

ACP Photo of the Year

• News/breaking news photo, first place – Cameron McKinney, Talisman
• News/breaking news photo, honorable mention – Dominic Di Palermo, College Heights Herald
• Feature photo, honorable mention – Emilee Arnold, Talisman
• Sports feature photo, honorable mention – Eli Randolph, College Heights Herald
• Sports feature photo, honorable mention – Eli Randolph, Talisman
• Environmental portrait, honorable mention, Ian Pitchford, College Heights Herald

ACP Design of the Year

• Magazine page/spread, first place – Amelia Curry, Talisman

College Media Association

• 2024 Distinguished Adviser – Chuck Clark

WKU Student Publications is celebrating a century of excellence, with the Talisman founded in 1924 and the College Heights Herald publishing its first edition on Jan. 29, 1925. It is one of the most success student-run media groups in the nation and also includes the Student Publications Advertising sales force and the Cherry Creative branded content studio.

For more information, contact Chuck Clark at chuck.clark@wku.edu or 270-745-4206.