Palo Alto High School journalism students garnered 17 awards at the 2008 National Scholastic Press Association national convention in Anaheim, Calif., April 17-20, including a Best of Show award for The Viking sports magazine, a fifth consecutive Online Pacemaker award for The Paly Voice, and numerous individual awards.

The Viking, making its NSPA debut, won Best of Show in the newsmagazine category and placed two spots ahead of Verde, Paly’s news and features magazine.

“It’s probably the best feeling I can remember,” senior co-Editor-in-Chief Austin Smith said. “It’s ridiculous to be our first year doing this.”

The Viking‘s junior co-Editors-in-Chief Peter Johnson and Noah Sneider also won the 2008 Student Journalist Impact Award with a $1,000 cash prize for their coverage of hazing in Paly athletics earlier this year. The judges said the hazing story had a profound effect, both within the school and on the Internet.

“I think it’s pretty amazing,” Sneider said. “It’s beyond anything we expected at the beginning of this year.”

The Paly Voice claimed its fifth consecutive Online Pacemaker award in the largest field of Pacemaker winners in contest history. NSPA had previously awarded only three Pacemakers, building suspense in the Paly section of the crowd. Paly’s students and advisers who attended felt great relief and joy when their name was the last of five winners to be called to the stage.

“I think it’s great that our entire staff managed to achieve one of our goals for the year,” junior Editor-in-Chief Michael Bloch said. “Our staff worked really hard to get this, and we’re all very excited that it paid off in the end.”

NSPA expanded its field of both finalists and winners, presumably in recognition of the growing number of quality high school journalism websites, according to Voice and Verde adviser Paul Kandell. Five out of ten* Online Pacemaker finalists won this year, in contrast to three out of nine in 2007.

“I think that the competition level is improved in quality and quantity,” Kandell said. “The number of competitors has grown. The Pacemaker winners this year show a definite trend towards increased use of digital media. The Voice used to be at the leading edge and now we’re just hanging on. Of course, the staff has plans to catch up and move ahead next year.”

The Campanile rounded out Paly’s publication awards, taking eighth place in the Best of Show for Newspapers contest in the 17+ pages newspaper category. Adviser Esther Wojcicki also received the Walt Clarkson Memorial Award, an honor given to teachers who have dedicated their lives to journalism.

Members of Voice, Viking, Verde, Campanile and InFocus continued the victory march through the convention’s individual write-off contests, in which 1,859 students from around the country competed in different categories. 714 contestants received “honorable mention”, “excellent” and “superior” awards, including a dozen Paly students.

The Voice’s senior sports editor Wes Duplantier was awarded Paly’s only “Superior” certificate and medal as one of six students placing the top awards category of the Newswriting contest.

“I really just got lucky,” Duplantier said. “In Paly’s program, I’ve learned to be good at writing that isn’t even my specialty.”

Paly brought home four “Excellent” awards from junior Verde business manager Lynn Chang in the editorial cartooning category, junior Viking reporter Ahna Rao in advertising, and junior Voice reporters Megha Ram and Cory McCroskey in podcasting.

The individual write-off awards concluded with “Honorable Mentions” from senior Viking reporter Ian Kelly in editorial writing, senior Viking co-Editor-in-Chief Austin Smith in review writing, senior Viking co-Editor-In-Chief Nina Gertsvolf in copy editing/headline/caption writing, junior Verde reporter Caitlin Watson in literary magazine layout, junior InFocus reporter Jess Brooks in video commercial/PSA, and sophomore Voice reporter Patricia Ho in computer design/infographics. The Viking‘s Sneider also won honorable mention in computer design/Photoshop art.

“I’m really proud of all the journalism publications at Paly,” Viking adviser Ellen Austin said. “I’m proud of all the really hard work everyone does.”

*Editor’s Note: the number of finalists was corrected from eight to ten after publication of the article.