The Clarion, Brevard College’s student newspaper, earned four awards in a statewide college media contest, including the prestigious “Best of Show” for overall excellence. Individual awards went to Zoe Hughes and Emma Murray for opinion writing and to Murray and Olivia Hyde for page design. The awards, for content published in 2024, were announced at the North Carolina College Media Association (NCCMA) Conference at Appalachian State University on Feb. 22. Ten staff members of The Clarion and Chiaroscuro, the college’s arts and literary journal, attended.
“I’m so proud of The Clarion staff for their accomplishments, especially in how they responded to Hurricane Helene and the hardships it caused last semester,” faculty adviser John Padgett said. “Newspaper work is highly collaborative, so the ‘Best of Show’ award is really for everyone involved in putting out the paper each week.”
The Best of Show award recognized The Clarion’s issues published on Oct. 4 and Oct. 11, following Hurricane Helene. The first issue included content originally slated for Sept. 27, the day the storm hit, but was delayed due to widespread power outages and loss of internet and cell service across western North Carolina.
Brevard College was one of five small colleges (under 8,500 students) to receive a Best of Show award. Judges—faculty from North Carolina colleges and universities—evaluated selected issues for excellence in appearance, content balance, writing quality, reporting, and visual elements.
In individual categories:
- Hughes and Murray earned third place in opinion writing for “Empty your SHEIN Cart! How fast fashion impacts our world” (Nov. 15).
- Murray won second place for her front-page design, “BC mountain bikers win 7 national championships” (Nov. 22).
- Hyde received an honorable mention for her “Two-sentence horror stories” design in The Scarion, the Halloween-themed issue (Nov. 1).
The four awards mark a new high for The Clarion, which has competed in the NCCMA contest since 2013. “It’s a fierce competition, especially for a small school like Brevard,” Padgett said. “There have been years when we don’t win anything.” This is only the second time The Clarion has won Best of Show, having also received the top honor in 2018.
Last year, Brevard College publication staff earned three individual awards: two for The Clarion and one for Chiaroscuro, which has been competing in the contest for three years. The NCCMA, founded in 2007 and based at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media, supports college media at public and private institutions across North Carolina.