‘The Planet’ named best ongoing student magazine in the country
The Society of Professional Journalists just . took first place in the “Best Ongoing Student Magazine” category, edging out competition across the United States.
“I am both over the moon and utterly unsurprised,” said Jeff Shaw, an instructor in ’s Journalism department and the advisor for The Planet magazine. “Anyone who saw the hard work, determination and conscientious effort the editorial team and staff put in over the past year would feel the same way.”
This year, The Planet magazine was led by Editor-in-Chief Julia Hawkins, Managing Editor Tori Lehman, Photo Editor Avery Robertson, Science Editor Ewan McLauchlan, Social Media Editor Omar Sayoud, and Story Editors Isaac Becker, Kylie Miller and Daria Walker.
“I’ve always known the work we do at The Planet was special and meant something, but this is on the next level!” said Hawkins. “I’m beyond thankful that we got to show people all the amazing things we do on the national level.”
Lehman echoed Hawkins’ sentiment.
“To say everyone at The Planet is overjoyed to win this award is an understatement. We are incredibly thankful for the recognition of our hard work, and grateful to all our reporters, staff, and advisor Jeff Shaw, who put in the work to make this magazine what it is.”
Lehman, who is the incoming editor-in-chief, is looking forward to continuing to make the magazine the best it can be.
“We’re excited to continue doing our best to educate our community about their environment and train the next generation of environmental reporters,” she said.
Earlier this year, The Planet earned six awards from the Society of Professional Journalists’ (SPJ) regional Mark of Excellence competition. Besides winning Best Ongoing Student Magazine, the team won awards in almost every journalism category, from news reporting to general magazine writing to photography to podcasting.
The Planet magazine's awards include:
- , for Best Ongoing Student Magazine (editorial team: Julia Hawkins, Tori Lehman, Isaac Becker, Ewan McLauchlan, Kylie Miller, Avery Robertson, Omar Sayoud and Daria Walker)
- Phoebe Clark, for “”: Environment/Science/Climate Reporting
- Soren Cooley, for “”: General News Photography
- Eleanor Geraghty, for “”: Campus Reporting
- Josh Maritz, for “”: General News Reporting
- India Rahmani, for “”: Best Podcast, Narrative
The Society of Professional Journalists began giving the Mark of Excellence awards in 2000. Since then, Western has won the top award in General News Photography (2001), Feature Writing (2003), Editorial Cartooning (2004, 2006), Magazine Non-Fiction (2005), General News Photography (2006, 2010), Breaking News Reporting (2010), and Online/Digital Feature Videography (2017). Western also received third place in Feature Photography (2002) and was named a finalist in Non-Fiction Magazine Article (2010), In-Depth Reporting (2010), Feature Photography from a Four-year College or University (2011), Photo Illustration from a Four-year College or University (2011), and Best Student Magazine (2013, 2014).
The Planet is a student-run quarterly environmental publication dedicated to environmental advocacy and awareness through responsible journalism. The magazine has been independently produced by Western Washington University students since 1979.
Read or look for the print anthology on newsstands around campus.
Jennifer Nerad covers Western's College of the Environment for the Office of University Communications. Have a great story idea? Reach out to her at neradj@wwu.edu.