Laguna Blanca’s student publication The Fourth Estate was one of 28 hybrid magazines chosen as finalists for the CSPA Crown Award to be presented in March 2018 at Columbia University. Crown finalists are actual winners, not just nominees. Some will be announced as Gold Crowns; the rest are Silver Crowns. A total of 1,100 publications were eligible for judging. The magazines were published during the 2016-17 academic year.

In its 23 years of publishing, The Fourth Estate has been recognized with Silver Crowns twice, in 2010 and 2016. Crown Awards are the highest recognition given by the CSPA to a student print or digital medium for overall excellence.

“For The Fourth Estate to receive Crown Awards two years in a row is unprecedented,” says Journalism Teacher Trish McHale. “It’s significant because it represents overall excellence in journalism on a national scale.”

A panel of Crown Judges assembles each year at Columbia University to view all entrants, whether they are newspaper, magazines, yearbooks, or online media. Judges are experienced former advisers to student media, professional journalists who understand student media or professionals such as photographers or online specialists with particular expertise needed for the judging exercise. During Crown consideration, publications are judged on their excellence as shown by their design, photography, concept, coverage, writing, and editing.

The Columbia Scholastic Press Association was founded in 1925 to unite student journalists and faculty advisers at schools and colleges through educational conferences, idea exchanges, textbooks, critiques, and award programs.

For more information on this year’s Crown Award recipients, visit the Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s website.