11/1/00

Alex Pack, 334/844-9999

THE AUBURN PLAINSMAN WINS 20TH PACEMAKER AWARD

AUBURN -- For the third consecutive year and 20th time in its history, The Auburn Plainsman, the AU student newspaper has won the Pacemaker Award, the college newspaper equivalent to the Pulitzer Prize.

The award, for the 2000-01 editions of The Plainsman, was presented at the Associated Collegiate Press' convention in New Orleans.

"It's a great feeling to be awarded the Pacemaker," said Rachel Davis, editor of last year's Plainsman, now a military affairs reporter for The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville. "The staff is the only reason we got this award. Everybody had a hand in it. All the hard work has paid off."

The Plainsman was also awarded the ACP's award for Best of Show for its Oct. 18, 2001, edition, which chronicled the Auburn football team's upset of then No. 1-ranked Florida. The Best of Show award is based on coverage and content, quality of writing and reporting, leadership on the opinion page, evidence of in-depth reporting, design, photography, art and graphics.

"Winning the Best of Show Award shows that The Plainsman is one of the best college newspapers in the nation," editor Napo Monestario said. "Everybody's dedicated to this and working hard. We're giving it one 110 percent and it shows."

The ACP, a division of the National Scholastic Press Association, and the Newspaper Association of America Foundation have co-sponsored the Pacemaker competition since 1971. ACP began the awards in 1925.

Only two other newspapers have won more Pacemakers, The Daily Tar Heel of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and The Indiana Daily Student at Indiana University.

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CONTACT: Davis, 904/359-4614; and Monasterio, 334/844-4130.