The 2012-2013 Devils’ Advocate Print staff advised by teacher Mrs. Sue Grady recently won the exclusive Newspaper Pacemaker Award in the Newsmagazine category from the NSPA. It is one of five papers in the nation that received this award.

According to the NSPA website, this award is based on the breadth and judgment of coverage, content, quality of writing, editorial leadership on editorial page, evidence of in-depth reporting, layout, design, photography, art and graphics.

“It’s really exciting. We put hours and hours a month into production, so it’s just nice to like getting recognition and knowing that it’s appreciated and that we turn out a good paper for all the work we put into it,” said Betsy Morgan, senior and Editor-In-Chief of this year’s magazine. Evan Lee was the Editor-In-Chief of the staff that won the award.

Mr. David Lange, English Department chair, believes that both the excellent design standards of the magazine as well as the editing of last year’s magazine contributed to the paper’s success.

“It didn’t just win because the students had good grammar skills. For instance, they were writing good stories, they were thoughtful and the design speaks for itself. It’s always outstanding,” Lange said.

Morgan agreed and added that the innovation of the paper throughout the year contributed to its success.

“It’s a learning process throughout the year, so by the time we hit the May issue, which is our last issue of the year, like obviously there are problems with every issue. We are never going to reach an issue that’s like ‘Yeah, this is absolutely 100 percent perfect,’ but I think we really improved on every issue and our work obviously paid off,” Morgan said.

Morgan was a sports editor in the 2012-2013 staff of the magazine and from there got to watch the magazine grow throughout the year.

“We’re definitely trying to keep with the concepts of a clean, minimalist look, but we also don’t want to copy last year. I think we’re still building on it and learning a lot this year, still trying to switch it up, keep being creative, and we don’t want to do the same old thing to win awards,” Morgan said. “We are trying to make this paper its own and build on what we learned last year.”

In regards to what makes the paper unique to Central, Morgan credits the school administration.

“We are really lucky that the administration gives us freedom to write whatever we want; we don’t have to send it to the administration before we go to print, so we have the freedom to talk about what students really care about. We don’t do the typical school paper thing where it’s just news that’s not controversial,” Morgan said. “We cover controversial things because we know that’s what students want to read and care about reading. We’re able to put our own perspective on it, which I think really sets us apart.”

Neither Lange nor Morgan would be too surprised if the Devils’ Advocate Print won the award again. “I don’t think it’s possible to win two years, but I think that the program is doing a fabulous, fabulous job,” Lange said.