The Record brings home 13 awards and wins best in state

The Record has been named the top newspaper college newspaper in the state of Minnesota for the 2022- 2023 academic year, beating out larger schools with more resources and dedicated journalism programs.

The Record staff was honored as first place in the general excellence award on Feb. 1 at the Minneapolis Marriott Northwest in Brooklyn Park, as a part of the Minnesota Newspaper Association’s 157th Annual Convention and Trade Show.

“We were ecstatic when we found out we won,” The Record’s editor-in-chief Kelly Kieser said. “Every member of our staff, past and present, has brought us to this success, and I’m so proud of each one of them.”

The last time The Record won Minnesota Newspaper Association’s Better Newspaper Contest’s general excellence award was in 2015 for the 2013-2014 academic year.

“I was super excited that we won general excellence,” 2022-23 editor-in-chief Jacob Gathje said. “It validates all the hard work we’ve put in, not just over the past year, but the work of those in previous years to get us to this point. I’m so thankful for our advisor, Kelly Smith, and all the editors and writers on the staff.”

In addition to winning general excellence, the staff also walked away with 12 individual awards in the following categories: local breaking news coverage, investigative reporting, human interest story, business story, arts and entertainment story, news photo, sports photo, photo story and columnist.

These awards were given to current staff members and seniors Kelly Kieser, Jacob Gathje, Eileen Otto, Amelia Kahlhamer, Ugbad Abdi and Molly Pults and CSB+SJU alumni Kate Fenske, Landon Peterson, Hailey Johnson, Caitlin Salfer and Capri Potter.

“Working for the newspaper has been one of the most challenging and equally rewarding experiences of my college career,” Kieser said. “It’s awesome to see the staff ’s hard work recognized in this way.”