Argus Wins Big in Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists’ Competition

The Wesleyan Argus student newspaper had a big showing at the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists’ Excellence in Journalism awards dinner on May 21. Gabe Rosenberg ’16, co-editor-in-chief of the Argus last semester, won a Bob Eddy Scholarship to Foster Journalism Careers, and Argus writers won several other awards, sweeping the editorial/op-ed category in the college competition.

The following writers/stories won awards:

• Jess Zalph ’16 won first place in the category of print/online editorial/oped for “The Point of Contention“;
• Zalph also won second place in the category of of print/online editorial/oped for “Unchart(er)ed Territory: On Discipline” and “Unchart(er)ed Territory: Reassessing Assessment“;
• Jenny Davis ’17 won third place in the category of print/online editorial/op-ed for “Prodigy, Schmodigy: Why I Choose Perspiration“;
• Courtney Laermer ’17 won third place in the category of print/online general reporting for “University Chapter of DKE Sues Wesleyan for Discrimination“;
• And Rosenberg won third place in the category of print/online feature for “Open Season: Acronym Pushes Program House into Internet Spotlight.”

According to Rosenberg, this is the first time in recent years that the Argus has entered the competition, and he was encouraged by the successful outcome.

“I’m hoping these awards will encourage our writers and editors to enter their work in all the years to come, and that this will become more of a regular thing for us,” he said. “I think the Argus has always been under-appreciated with regards to the quality of journalism at our paper, and how much work we put into making a newspaper every week, twice a week, for pretty much the entire school year.”

Rosenberg said he and co-editor-in-chief Sofi Goode ’17 “worked hard to push our staff this semester to think beyond what the newspaper had done in the past–both in terms of content and in terms of execution, how we get our stories out there–and it’s really worked. More people are reading the Argus online than ever, interacting with us more on Facebook and Twitter, and while sometimes we mess up and get called out on it, it just means that people truly care about what we write about and what we don’t.”

In accordance with the Argus’ practice, Rosenberg and Goode stepped down as co-editors-in-chief at the end of the spring semester, and will serve as executive editors going forward.

As the first-place winner of the Bob Eddy Scholarship to Foster Journalism Careers, Rosenberg was awarded a $2,500 academic scholarship. He has worked in journalism since high school, and plans to pursue a career in the field. At Wesleyan, he has worked at the Argus and Wesleying, with responsibilities ranging from writing concert reviews to running social media accounts to editing breaking news and features. This summer, he is interning at his hometown newspaper, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Last summer he interned at a start-up called Contently and worked at The Columbia Journalism Review. He has continued to do freelance work for both organizations, as well as for the music blog Consequence of Sound and the publication Intern Magazine.