High School Better Newspaper Contest
The WNA Foundation’s High School Better Newspaper Contest recognizes student achievements in high school newspapering. The panel of judges includes publishers, general managers, editors, reporters, photographers, copy editors and other staffers.
The submission period for the High School Better Newspaper Contest is now open. The entry deadline is Thursday, Feb. 1.
All submissions must have been published between Jan. 1, 2023, and Dec. 31, 2023. This year’s contest is being judges by members of the Kentucky Press Association.
The 2023 Rules & Categories can be downloaded here. Detailed technical entry instructions can be accessed by downloading the Contestant Manager Guide.
Questions about the contest should be directed to WNA.
General Excellence award
Each student newspaper winning first place for General Excellence will be given a $2,000 Branen Scholarship: WNAF’s only family-sponsored award.
Awarded annually since 1992, it is named for William E. Branen, former publisher and president of the weekly Burlington Standard Press. Branen went to Burlington as a reporter after his graduation from the University of Wisconsin and in 1953 became the state’s youngest editor.
Branen served in every office of the Wisconsin Press Association (a forerunner to the WNA) and was elected as its president in 1964. He was also among the earliest weekly publishers to recognize the importance of developing technology to newspapers and helped establish Southern Lakes Publishers, Inc., whose seven publishers organized the nation’s first central plant for offset printing multiple newspapers. He died in 1988.
