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The NSPA Pacemaker Award is an award given annually to high school and college media publications. Generally considered to be the highest national honors in their field, Pacemaker awards are unofficially known as the "Pulitzer Prizes of student journalism." Pacemakers are awarded annually at the JEA/NSPA National Conference in the following categories: Newspaper, Online, Yearbook/Magazine, and Broadcast. This is USA specific.

Newspaper Pacemakers
NSPA and the Newspaper Association of America Foundation have co-sponsored the Pacemaker competition since 1971. NSPA began the awards in 1927. The awards, which are considered by many to be the highest national honors for student journalism, are unique in their judging. Several issues from each newspaper's production schedule are randomly selected to be judged, which ensures that to be competitive for a Pacemaker, a publication must show consistent quality over an entire academic year.

Judges select Pacemaker Finalists and Pacemakers based on the following: coverage and content, quality of writing and reporting, leadership on the opinion page, evidence of in-depth reporting, design, photography, art and graphics.

Pacemakers are selected by the staff of a professional newspaper in the host city of the annual National College Media Convention, in the case of college papers, or the National High School Journalism Convention for high school publications.


 * List of National Newspaper Pacemaker winners

Online Pacemakers
This contest replaces NSPA's Best of the Net competition, which began in 1996. Member publication Web sites are not automatically entered in the Pacemaker competition - staffs must submit a Pacemaker entry form.

Online Pacemaker entries are judged during the months of February and March, based upon the following criteria: design, navigation, writing/editing, graphics and interactivity.

Yearbook/Magazine Pacemakers
Yearbook/Magazine Pacemakers are judged based upon the following criteria: writing/editing, design, content, concept, photography, art and graphics.

In conjunction with the Yearbook Pacemaker competition, NSPA will recognize with an award of excellence the best interactive (CD/DVD) yearbooks in a separate contest. Interactive entries must include a copy of the printed book.

Broadcast Pacemakers
NSPA awards Broadcast Pacemaker awards for high school student-produced television news programs.

An entry consists of a student-produced news program or segment of a longer news program, on VHS format video tape. For the purposes of this competition, student-produced means that the majority of the planning, writing, scripting, taping and editing of the program was done by students.