A Little Bit of Shameless Self-Promotion

Nicholas Maronese
Editor-in-Chief
From time to time, Excalibur‘ll get a letter or a complaint from someone who thinks we’re not quite doing our job right. Sometimes they’re correct–we make mistakes.
But a lot more often, our team does one helluva job. Being recognized for that hard work feels great, which is why I’d thought I’d spread some news about our awesome news team.
This past month Excalibur was nominated by the Canadian University Press to the shortlist for their annual John H. McDonald newspaper awards–twice. News Editor (then-Assistant News) Alexandra Birukova and staff reporter Stephanie Directo were nominated in the Investigative Journalism category for their undercover investigation into the wages paid by a campus jewelry kiosk. Then-News Editor Scott McLean — now a reporter with GlobalTV in Regina — was also nominated, for his in-depth analysis of the lateness of TTC buses to York’s campus (it even included an interview with then-TTC chair Adam Giambrone).
These Excal writers put a lot of hard work into those pieces, and they’re finally getting some national attention; some of the credit, though, has to go to then-Editor-in-Chief Alexandra Posadzki, who helped coordinate the kiosk investigation and was the one who called in Toronto Star Investigations Editor Kevin Donovan to host the seminar on news investigations that inspired the “Dude, Where’s My Bus?” story (many thanks to Mr. Donovan, too, who also very graciously returned for a seminar this fall). Posadzki, now a freelance journalist for the Toronto Star, Eye Weekly and the Canadian Press (she’s also CUP’s Ontario Bureau Chief) did a stand-up job last year, and it really shows.
She’s also the person Excalibur has to thank for the Newspaper Pacemaker Award the paper received from the Associated Collegiate Press for last year’s overall design and content. The international awards are handed to exceptional American and Canadian campus newspapers after they’re judged by a panel of professional journalists — in other words, they’re kind of a big deal. Excalibur is, of course, a multiple ACP award-winner, though this is the first time we’ve entered (and won) the Pacemakers in particular.
Like I said, we’re not perfect, but I’d like to think we are pretty good at what we do. We’ve strengths and weaknesses, but we put out a decent product. Most importantly, we work hard at what we do, and try our very best to serve our community and our readers–and now we’ve got the hardware to prove it.
What do you think? If you agree — and if you don’t — shoot us a letter (letters@excal.on.ca) or leave a comment below.