Individual Winner (If applicable)

Custer County District High School

Beautifully executed. Effective use of fonts and easy to read.

Fun design that used fresh fonts that carried the message

Clean design - easy to process. Effective use of fonts. Created a small ad that was easy to read and should make the client happy.

Judges thought Spartan TV did an excellent job with a variety of video projects inside their broadcasts. Students did a good job of anchoring the program. The general news pieces boasted excellent video skills, solid interviewing and lighting, and engaging and interesting production values. Writing, from hard news to features, was thoughtful and well executed.

While not a traditional news program, Hawk-TV created engaging content for their high school audience. The students made outstanding use of graphics and interesting video techniques.

An excellent effort with a lot of promise. Students produced a program with a variety of content and different approaches to presenting that content.

GAH! Misspelled canceled in the cartoon. But still the best of the entries for its fun take on Missoula school policy intersecting with eternal winter.

Nice depiction, clearly illustrating the problem.

Nice illo, clearly illustrates the editorial.

Actually LOL'd. Nice work. But watch your plural vs. possessives. "Memes" is plural and what you want here, not "Meme's."

Actually LOL'd. So cute and fun.

This is a funny photo that illustrates the story well.

Well-composed image with nice depth of field. Creative idea to illustrate a story.

Nice image for this story. Would have liked to have had the full fire truck in the shot instead of having the front wheel cut off though.

This is a good image for the story, but try to focus on one part of the action. You have a lot of things going on in the frame, and you need to compose your shots so the viewer's eye is drawn to a specific point of action.

Custer County District High School

Nice light in this photo and relatively clean composition.

Strong collection of images showing team spirit at Park High.

This is a great feature image with strong composition and emotion. And not an easy shot to do well under low light. Nice job!

This is a really clean portrait with good natural lighting. Her gaze works well for the seriousness of the story, too.

This is a nice action moment that illustrates the story well. Be careful with your composition though. The guy in the white t-shirt in the background is distracting. If you'd just repositioned yourself a bit to the right before taking the photo, he would have been blocked by the guy in the orange.

Yeesh. I'd never heard of The Knockout Game, so Toni's story about this brutal passtime is an eye-opener. The subject and its history are intriguing, and Toni answered most of my questions quickly and efficiently. But I am confused about one thing. Is there a connection to the story and Valier? Or is this a just story about a faraway oddity? I'd make that clear.

Yeesh. I'd never heard of The Knockout Game, so Toni's story about this brutal passtime is an eye-opener. The subject and its history are intriguing, and Toni answered most of my questions quickly and efficiently. But I am confused about one thing. Is there a connection to the story and Valier? Or is this a just story about a faraway oddity? I'd make that clear.

I enjoyed Tori's feature about the sport of sport of Spartan races. Great quotes from contestants made the piece. (My favorite: "I would say my favorite part was the finish line because it was over.") I'm not sure what a "burpee" is, but I suspect it is challenging and involves jumping over fires. Yikes. The rest of the race's events were clearer. A stronger lead, one with a single sentence instead of fragments, would have helped the story get rolling, but Tori did a great job of capturing the thrill and craziness of this grueling competition.

Interesting feature about someone every thinks they know, but really don't. Meredith did a great job of fleshing out Mr. Couts' story, from his military service to his decision to become a teacher. We learn about his travels to Japan and Macedonia, his passion for reading (I'd love to know some of his favorite books) and his interest in playing the ukulele. You have to love a ukulele player. Nicely reported and written.

Interesting piece on Columbus Day. This might have been better entered as a column because it's mostly Hailey's take on the day. To make it a feature, I'd have interviewed some people about whether Columbus should have his own day. The range of responses could have be interesting and revealing.

Para's story about four foreign exchange students at Custer. Co. High this year was a great way to introduce and embrace these young people from around the globe. Her instincts to get right to the differences those students notice about American schools got the story off to a great start. The point of the exchange is show the differences and the similarities, and Para's questions paid off with great examples and quotations. She made me "see" this students and understand what an exciting and sometimes confusing experience this surely is. Impressive.

I had a tough time deciding between first and second in this category because I loved this band story. I loved it because Sarah showed me that this resurrected marching band truly is a labor of love for these students who are struggling to play their instruments and learn their steps, but getting better with every performance. Her quotes from band members and leaders were wonderful. I hope they get their "full horn moves" down by the time the uniforms arrive next fall. Nicely done.

Wesley's frank feature on the day-to-day struggles that he and another student diabetic at Big Sky face was an eye-opener. The writing was clear, crisp and to the point with good background and great quotes from school health officials. The situations, hopes and fears described by student Janessa Wells were especially compelling though, and the bond that she and Wesley have made to support each other is nothing short of inspiring. Impressive work!

The competition for second place in this category was tough, but I gave Mimi's story the nod because it was timely and connected to issues beyond her campus. This piece about what it really takes to make change in a democracy, and I found it provocative and timely. Great examples and great sources showed the difference between fashionable posing and real protest. This was a great idea that was well produced.

This feature about two great school volunteers was thorough and well-written with great anecdotes and quotes about the contributions they make to the school. Every school should be so lucky. Mackenzie did a great job of interviewing Pat and Claudia, giving readers real insight into what they do and why they do it.

This graphic does a nice job of mixing multiple data points into a single graphic. The enrollment and graduation rates are central data points and combined effectively with more anecdotal quotes. Nicely done although watch readability of point size.

Adding the data of loggers' thoughts on President Trump's policies adds a critical grounding to the story. One thing to consider on the graphic side is alternative visualizations -- like a pie chart -- to offer the reader an easier way to conceptualize the information.

Although replicated elsewhere online, Emma's recasting of the Electoral College map using different demographic groups is an effective way to convey a lot of information about how different groups voted in the 2016 election.

The two charts help a reader understand the tax implications of the school bonds and where the money will likely head. Consider breaking down one of those bigger bond numbers into more sub groups to help the reader quickly see where the funds will be spent.

Rayna Crews, Tessa Johnson & Madison Ulberg

This was a tricky one to judge. On the one hand, the design and layout of green ribbon and inside graphic are well done, but the underlying data is lacking for a true infographic. Data about body dysmorphia, its prevalence in high schoolers or even if the words were related to things submitted by Sentinel High Schoolers would have made this more of an infographic. I like the use of design, what needs work is the data side of the equation.

A clear winner for best news photography. The top photograph does everything well. It gives us action, people and it tells the story concisely. Good use of a longer lens and shallower depth of field to direct the viewer. Most importantly it tells a story of a news event in our community.

Great job getting out in the community and covering an event that matters to that community. The photo has a clear subject, uses light very well, and paints a nice scene from the event.
The one thing that could be improved, we really need to see the right hand of the subject. This frame is cropped or framed a bit too tightly at the bottom. Nice job telling this story.

This is an interesting news story in your high school community. Good job getting out with the K-9 team. The photograph does tell the story.
To improve this photo keep shooting the unit and look for a better moment of interaction between the people and the dogs and/or the dogs and the lockers. If you wanted the best action moment what would it look like? Possibly the dog keyed in on a locker.

Fun photo package from an interesting event at your school. The bottom image is the best of the series. It would be nice to run that picture as the lead image, that is make it bigger than the rest and use just one other image as a secondary image. Sometimes less is more.
This photo works because it has a great moment and expression. In addition, great job using shallow depth of field to lead us to the main subjects. Additionally, good job including the students in the background. The photo tells the story really well.

Custer County High School

This is close. The exposure and lighting is done well. Good technical image and it is clear who the subject is. However, the composition needs improved. If the story is about these students working on stained glass projects we need to see more of that. So shoot this horizontally and included a bit more on the right of what they are doing. And a bit less on the left. Or even move to the right a bit for a better vantage.

Good news event to cover in your school. News is about events that affect people. The photograph works well because it has a good moment and it clearly communicates the story. The exposure(and possibly printing) is a bit dark.)
Good moment of interaction. That helps this photograph. One suggestion might be to shoot this a bit tighter and as a horizontal frame. That would still give us a sense of the environment, but get us closer to the expression.

Florence-Carlton High School

This photo is good technically. But it is really missing one important thing, the artist. We really need to see the artist in this photograph. If it is about the exceptional talent of this artist, then we need the artist in the image to tell the story. Or maybe you use two images. One of the final piece and another of the artist working on a project.
Keep thinking about how to tell the full story in one image.

OK. So this is a good news worthy story for your publication. And even for your greater community. That is the start of a good news photograph.
Good clear subject in an environment that tells a bit of the story, yet the environment isn't distracting.
This photo, however, is more of a portrait. And it sure would be a lot better in color! But think about other ways of making this photo stronger. Often the best photojournalism pictures are of actions and emotions. So if they wore pink to the game and were cheering loud amidst a crowd - that is your picture. It would have action and emotion and still show they are wearing pink! Keep up the good work.

The Sun Journal, "State Senate Debates HS Bill"

Well reported and clearly written from multiple perspectives. Well-rounded story.

The Stampede, "The Immersion Factor"

Informative story, well researched and well told.

Bozeman High News, "Search and Seizure in Schools: Do random searches violate the fourth amendment?"

Valier High Writers "VHS drug testing: Effective or wasteful?"

Darba Lunda and Coralee Bock

Excellent reporting. Very impressive use of multiple sources. Explained a multifaceted story with clarity and context.

Valier High Writers, "How common are school athletics drug tests, really?"

Blue's News, "Eva Kor, Holocaust Survivor"

The Geyser, "Sophomore class attacks wolf controversy"

Nicely written and well reported.

The Signal, "Science club expirements with formal"

Custer County District School.

Tamarack, "LHS tackels cancer awareness head on"

Jillian Hawthorne and Alyssa Marshall

Tackles a sensitive subject with good reporting.

Florence Chronicle, "Danara and the bee"

The Norse Code, "Threads for the Holidays

Custer County District High School

Traditional approach.Text is easy to read. Good job of choosing a sans serif font for your headline but try something that is not condensed, as it is usually easier to read in display type.
Keep up the good work - it appears you are producing the editorial and the ad design.

Overall, the best of the AA group.

Megan Baker and Maddy Stringer

You made it easy to read your paper. Good design should be invisible - so that the reader/viewer looks at everything with ease. Congrats.

Loved the cover. That brought the readers to your paper. The first job of the designer is to grab the reader.You did that with your cover.

There was a tie for first. Both schools produced an excellent paper.

This was a tough category but your overall paper, cover and inside pages were the best.

Your body copy (text is easy to read throughout the paper. Your designers understand dominant art for each page. Do choose two fonts for your headlines and you will show more consistency. chose one strong sans serif and one serif for contrast.
Keep up the good work - and keep experimenting.

Pretty clean design throughout this issue. Like you did on your front page, be sure to have one dominant piece of art (can be a photo or an illustration) for each page. Glad your staff chose a sans serif font for your headlines - for next year try a newer sans serif like Avenir or Gill Sans. Good job.

Tackled tough subjects, designed-well. Smart and driven.

Great papers this year. Loved the mental health coverage. Thorough with lots of voices represented.

A strong contender. Great covers. Very thorough coverage. Lot of professionalism. Would benefit from covering deeper topics/angles.

Park High School, Livingston

Even better than last year. Like the arts coverage and coverage of community beyond the school. Well-designed and clear.

Solid paper doing a great job covering issues important to the school. Nice work.

Lovely covers. Like the point/counterpoint on Melania Trump - taking politics seriously. Nice work on news.

Strong contender. Nice efforts on news. Love the News Briefs. Lots of professionalism here.

Quality paper, clean design. Love the Student Spotlight on A1. Strong opinion section.

A dynamic website with a sense of fun.

Gives a good sense of campus life at Sentinel, from arts to news to sports.

Some lovely close up shots in your sports section.

Florence-Carlton High School

Best horoscope in Montana.

Impressive diversity of voices.

This is a strong piece that takes a close look at the impact of the presidential election on people who are not old enough to vote. It explains the hopelessness many young people felt and the outcome and, more importantly, gives cause for hope.

This is a great piece about what it means to be a teenage feminists. It does a great job at explaining some of the myths surrounding feminism. You explain well why feminism is not a bad, but something to be proud of.

Jessica Banks and Sarah Ljunggren

Very nice job presenting two opposing perspectives on federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

This piece did a nice job explaining the importance of the Women's March in Washington. The writer has a strong voice and makes an excellent case for hope.

Gracie makes a great case for taking a break from technology. The piece explains what we are losing as s "plugged in" culture and what we can gain from pulling the plug.

Hannah did a very nice job explaining her opposition to an immigration ban. She provides excellent context while explaining the history of US immigration and opposition to immigrants.

Grace makes a persuasive case for the positive attributes of Melania Trump and provides readers a glimpse into the minds of Trump supporters.

In a school that offers welding and auto shop, the writer makes a great case for bringing back home economics. For what good is fixing your car if you don't know how to cook?

Dana Baskett and Austin Clements

This is a nice package of opposing viewpoints on Donald Trump. Dana and Austin did a great job simplifying the perspectives of both those for and opposed to Trump as president.

Custer County District High School

Korell does a good job at presenting the belief that not standing for the national anthem shows disrespect for veterans.

Creative concept for a story about emojis.

Clever incorporation of the swords on the phones to make your point.

Good incorporation of doodling to illustrate this story, but you have too much text on one page. Break things up into digestible pieces (visually) for your readers.

Strong grouping of choir images. In general, photo illustrations are not simply a collage of images, however. They generally begin with a photo that's manipulated creatively via Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop to create an artistic piece.

Bare's action-packed coverage of divisional basketball championships wins thanks to his attention to detail. However, we urge him to pick a tense and stick with it. Past tense is a good one for events that have already happened. Congratulations, Cole.

Abby Reidle's wrap up of the start of the varsity boys' basketball season is short and to the point. She packs a lot of game summary into her overview. She could take it to the next level by providing details that give the reader a sense of the team's style and the intensity of each game. Congratulations Abby.

Jessica Jones & Ambler Winter

Jessica Jones & Ambler Winter wrap up the Lady Loggers volleyball season with a lively piece full of game stats and action. The two have a good ear for choosing direct quotes that show emotion or opinion in fun and interesting ways. Congratulations Jessica Jones & Ambler Winter.

Florence-Carlton High School

Hanna Parrot's hilariously punny coverage of the Falcons volleyball undefeated streak is great (she managed to mangle numerous cliches replacing Ls with Ws (because the team hadn't lost -- taken any Ls.) She slips into first person opinion at the end of the story, which is understandable but not quite journalistic. Still, huge style points for taking a silly idea and having a lot of fun with it. Congratulations Hannah Parrot.

Matt Gash-Gilder's coverage of the state wrestling tournament provided both details of key matches and important context to win this category. His inclusion of notable milestones (coaches' 5th win,) and interesting stories off the main stage (first girl to compete in AA state wrestling,) took his story beyond the basics. Congratulations, Matt Gash-Gilder.

Aston Kinsella successfully used the three big goals of the girls' volleyball season to structure a story that showed the power of teamwork and commitment on and off the court. Kensella could take his reporting to the next level by including direct quotes from the players that evoked the emotions of such a powerful season finale.

Qunicy Schmechel turned his sharp eye on the tradition of the Crosstown basketball rivalry. Direct quotes and interviews are clearly his strength. To take the story to the next level, Quincy might include some game action highlights so that readers get a sense of why the crowd loves Crosstown games so much. Congratulations Quincy Schmechel.

Darby Lunda & Coralee Bock

Darby Lunda & Coralee Bock capture the agony of a Valier athlete diagnosed with a cyst on his brain. They follow him through surgery and recovery and then back onto the court and into good health. A heartwarming story. They could take their reporting to the next level by including direct quotes that capture the emotion of an athlete restricted from the sports he loves and forced to confront the fragility of his well being. Congratulations, Darby Lunda & Coralee Bock.