Image magazine named No. 1 in the nation

Image magazine, a quarterly magazine published by TCU Student Publications, has been judged the nation’s best student magazine by the Society of Professional Journalists, and three TCU student journalists have also been named by SPJ as among the top three nationally in their respective categories.

SPJ announced Wednesday, May 16, that Image has been named National Winner of its Mark of Excellence Award as best student magazine. The judging was based on the four issues published during the 2006 calendar year. The 2006 judging period overlaps the selection and hiring of two editorial staffs.  The Spring 2006 editorial staff included editor-in-chief Jenny Eure, managing editor Alison Rubinson; design editor Brian Wooddell, and photo editor Stephen Spillman. They were succeeded in Fall 2006 by editor-in-chief Darren White, managing editor Kathleen Thurber, design editor Ky Lewis, with Spillman returning as photo editor.

The national winners and finalists were announced as the culmination of competitions in which collegiate journalists submitted more than 3,300 entries in 39 categories. The MOE Awards recognize a national winner and two national finalists from among the first-place winners in each category from each of 12 regions in the U.S.  TCU competes in Region 8, which comprises Texas and Oklahoma.

Three TCU Student Publications journalists were recognized as National Finalists:

• Spillman, in the Breaking News Photography category for his TCU Daily Skiff photograph on March 30, 2006, of a fire that destroyed the TCU Bookstore.
• Spillman and Travis Stewart in the Online Sports Reporting category for “Houston History: Kicker Finds Redemption,” their DailySkiff.Com coverage of the Houston Bowl football game published on Jan. 1 2006
• Christina Ruffini, in the Magazine Non-Fiction Article category for “Evolution or Revolution? The New Frontier in Women’s Sexuality” in the Spring 2006 issue of Image magazine. 

Spillman and fellow TCU student journalist Andrew Chavez were in competition for the national awards after also winning regional first place MOE awards: Spillman and Chavez for Online News Reporting, and Chavez for Breaking News Reporting.

Wednesday’s announcement marks the second consecutive year that Image has earned national SPJ recognition. The magazine, whose editorial staffs included Wooddell and Spillman, was named one of the two publications to receive 2005 National Finalist awards.

The national winners and finalists will be recognized Friday, Oct. 5, 2007 at the Mark of Excellence Luncheon, which occurs during the 2007 SPJ Convention and National Journalism Conference. This year’s conference will be at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill.

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