A hotbed for journalism is developing in the North County.
Paso Robles High School’s new magazine, the Crimson, earned its sixth consecutive top-10 finish for the National Scholastic Press Association’s (NSPA) best of show award at the National High School Journalism convention held last weekend in San Francisco. The Crimson placed sixth in a convention of approximately 400 publications.
Sixteen Paso Robles High School students attended the roughly 4,000-student convention, seven of whom received individual awards.
Junior Sydney Matteson captured the publication’s lone first place prize for superior advertising design. Paso Robles students also won awards for feature writing, review writing, sports writing, sports photography, news magazine layout and infographic design.
“It’s been a year of late hours, hard work, staff changes and redesigns,” Crimson adviser Jeff Mount said. “What a blessing to be acknowledged by the national high school journalism scene. We’re hanging with the big dogs.”
The Crimson is the print product of a 25-student journalism program at Paso Robles High School. The journalism students also maintain a news website.
In 2011, the Crimson received the NSPA Pacemaker finalist award, the highest level of recognition the NSPA offers. The Paso Robles student publication has also received three consecutive All American rankings.
