The Scarlet & Black wins Iowa college newspaper of the year, 20 awards

For the second year in the row, The Scarlet & Black has been named the News & Multimedia Organization of the Year at the Iowa College Media Association (ICMA) awards. In addition, individual journalists and photographers at The Scarlet & Black received 20 awards — the most ICMA awards received in The Scarlet & Black’s history. 

Lyle Muller, The Scarlet & Black’s professional advisor, received the Eighmey award — ICMA’s highest distinction, awarded to an individual who has made tremendous efforts to “advance quality media education in Iowa.”

“It was a humbling announcement,” Muller said. “I’ve had a lot of different awards and been fortunate to do a lot of neat things, but that was very meaningful.” 

This is the fourth year that The Scarlet & Black has submitted entries to the ICMA awards. Despite Grinnell College having no committed journalism program, The Scarlet & Black recieved the most awards in the awards’ print and multimedia news category. 

“Only a few years ago, The Scarlet & Black wasn’t even a member of the Iowa College Media Association,” Muller said. “This is the fourth year we’ve entered the contest and twice we’ve been the News and Multimedia Organization of the year.”

Best Print/Online News Reporting

First Place – “Grinnell College ranked worst school in the US for comfort expressing ideas” by Nina Baker `24

Best Print/Online Profile

First Place – “Remembering Professor Johanna Meehan” by Claire Giannosa `26

Best Opinion

First Place – “Vivek Ramaswamy built his campaign on “TRUTH” — it crumbled because of lies” by Zach Spindler-Krage `25

Best Staff Editorial

First Place – “Staff Editorial: We need transparency on our budgets” by The S&B Staff

Best Print Newspaper Front Page

First Place – “The White Page” – The S&B Staff

Third Place – “The Drag Show Cover” – Zach Spindler Krage `25, Scarlett Saldaña `27, Khanh Do `27

Best Print/Online News Photo

First Place – “Tommy Hexter campaigns” by Julia Marlin `27

Second Place – “The “Veils” of Kelly Banfield” by Zach Spindler-Krage `25

Honorable Mention – “Renfrow Hall construction from above” by Marc Duebener `27

Best Print/Online Sports Photo

Second Place – “Football celebration” by Marc Duebener `27

Third Place – “Soccer team celebrates at Grinnell College” by Meilynn Smith `27

Honorable Mention – “Caitlin Clark signs autographs” by Zach Spindler-Krage `25

Best Print/Online Feature Photo

First Place – “The Merciful Marilyn Michael” by Meilynn Smith `27

Second Place – “Edith Renfrow Smith as she is honored at Grinnell College” by Zach Spindler-Krage `25

Third Place – “Mealz at Grinnell” by Owen Barbato `25

Best Print Design

Second Place – “Renfrow Building Dedication” by Zoe Zappas `27 and Zach Spindler-Krage `25

Best Print/Online Sports Reporting

Second Place – “Caitlin Clark breaks scording record, but her legacy was already cemented” by Zach Spindler-Krage `25

Best Sports Feature Reporting

Second Place – “Low athletic turnout leaves athletes and administration confused” by Allison Moore `24 and Gabriela Roznawska `26

Best Online Design

Second Place – “Save The Print” by The S&B Staff 

Best Headline Writing

Honorable Mention – “The S&B Headlines” by The S&B Staff