Place Name: First Place Contestant Name: The Advance-Titan Entry Title: Advance-Titan website Entry Credit: Cassidy Johnson Judge Comment: Good nav bar up top, but house ad should be a different color to separate it from the nav bar. Trio of spotlighted stories should have headlines visible to make clear the are clickable stories. Good layout down the rest of the page. Website certainly fulfills a community role: evidenced by the opportunities for advertising, and by the type of content appearing on the homepage. Good usage of photos on the majority of posts, including the differences in sizing, though would be nice if each post had a photo.
Place Name: Second Place Contestant Name: The Daily Cardinal Entry Title: The Daily Cardinal Entry Credit: The Daily Cardinal Staff Judge Comment: Full nav bar with terrific drop down options. I like how I can quickly find content on the sport I like. Good donate button up high. Great layout of spotlighted stories, with sizing drawing you to the more important stories. Nice work promoting multimedia/podcast content next, and I like the breakdown of what the podcast episode covers - but it runs longer than the photo gallery. Probably a good spot for an ad, even a house ad. Certainly opportunities throughout the homepage for ads, even house ads if the ad income is on the lighter side. I'm not against the (almost) endless scroll of content, when the right sidebar is fully, or near fully, utilized. Looking at the nav bar, you have more podcasts that you could advertise with a house ad during the right rail of the homepage. Or a house ad for the very lively opinion section.
Place Name: Third Place Contestant Name: The Clarion Entry Title: The Online Clarion Entry Credit: Kaleia Lawrence, Lillian Coppelman Judge Comment: I appreciate the multi-colored nav bar, but I do question why two rows are needed. Spotlighted stories should have headlines visible without hovering - you want to get the readers clicking right away. Cute house ad for advertising opportunities. Menu option in the upper left is difficult to notice. I like the labeling of the advertisements, the 3 out of 4 times that feature was used. Everything feels very boxed though, and not natural.
