Best Newspaper
Public Universities

Winner: The Alligator, University of Florida
Runner-Up: The Oracle, University of South Florida
Honorable Mention: The Future, Univ. of Central Florida

Winner
The Alligator—University of Florida
How do you compete with The Independent Florida Alligator? It’s not easy. The University of Florida’s independent daily newspaper has the best writing of any student newspaper in Florida, and we don’t say that lightly. Florida publications have a long tradition of standing toe-to-toe with the best newspapers nationwide, but The Alligator routinely sets the standard on the quality of reporting and extensiveness of coverage. “Because our readers traditionally don’t read other major newspapers, it’s our obligation to provide all the news we can—local, national, and world—that’ll be important and give students the information to make informed decisions,” says Sarah Myrick, editor during the fall 2002 semester.

One look at nearly any issue and you can immediately tell that The Alligator considers itself a newspaper, emphasis on the news. With a consistent 60/40 split between hard news and sports, there isn’t much space given to the lighter stories—movie reviews, concert updates, restaurant reviews—traditionally considered the bread and butter of campus journalism.  “Detours,” The Alligator’s once-a-week entertainment section, is a weakness for the paper. Used primarily as an outlet for writers to curse and complain, the section offers little in the way of real feature reporting. Considering the readers, there may be a place for crass humor in college journalism, but The Alligator doesn’t balance the section with more conventional, well-reported feature articles.

However, on those rare occasions when the paper decides to publish a “news feature,” the final product is engaging and covers all angles. The two most prominent news features published this year—an article on the military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and a three-piece series on date rape—took much larger issues and localized them for a student audience. “The date rape series highlighted an issue that impacts students and used examples from local cases and victims of date rape to tell the story,” Myrick says.

Considered “liberal” by most of UF’s students and faculty, The Alligator has made strides this year in balancing the “Editorial” section by hiring a regular “conservative” columnist and expanding the section to two or more complete pages. The paper also has improved its coverage of Greek events—an area lacking in the past.

While The Alligator may write circles around the competition, it could use a few lessons in modern newspaper design. In the past 20 years, The Alligator has had only minor adjustments in design. What it needs is complete reconstructive surgery. Visually, the paper’s as effective as Novocain at dulling a reader’s attention span. The extremely text-heavy pages need an infusion of photos, art, graphics, or sidebars—anything to break up the monotony, especially on the front page. If The Alligator weren’t so established at UF, no one would pick it up based on curb appeal.

Although Myrick admits that the paper’s relationship with Student Government has been rocky, she says it’s serving the students by monitoring their elected officials. “We consider our relationship with SG to be the same as that between any government entity and an independent newspaper,” she says. “The newspaper serves as a watchdog over government, and the government often fears the newspaper is overstepping its boundaries and interfering in their ability to make an impact.”

This rocky relationship has sometimes extended to the UF administration as well. “Does the administration always agree with the point of view expressed in The Alligator? No!,” says Eugene Zdziarski, dean of students. “But if The Alligator was expressing views that were always in agreement with the administration—or the faculty, SG, or community for that matter—then they wouldn’t be reporting objectively, and they wouldn’t be doing their job.”

Contact Zdziarski at genez@ufl.edu, or visit www.alligator.org.

Runner-up
The Oracle—University of South Florida
Since the early 1990s, UF’s Alligator and the University of South Florida’s Oracle have jockeyed for position at the top of Florida Leader’s “best newspaper” list. Although The Alligator has won in a photo finish for first place this year, the current incarnation of The Oracle is in many ways better than its perennial competitor.

When it comes to design, there’s no contest. It’s almost shocking how much more interesting The Oracle is than The Alligator when you realize that the two papers are both daily tabloids. Using a strict modular design, The Oracle effectively incorporates photos and graphics to improve a story’s packaging. “The students have experimented with design a little more this year,” says Jay Lawrence, advisor. “Sometimes, it’s hard to do with the volume of news and the limitations of classic tabloid design, but they’ve tried to play around more this year.”

With the creation of “Scene,” a weekly pull-out section covering everything from concert and movie reviews to campus events and fine arts, The Oracle has achieved what The Alligator’s “Detours” should strive to be—a respectable source for entertainment news. “I see students reading it all over campus,” says Ryan Meehan, editor in chief. “When I walk into a classroom and I see a bunch of Oracles strewn on the floor, I can’t help but smile.”

Every issue also includes an in-depth feature presented in a center-spread format. “The features have taken on more of a news slant,” Lawrence says. “Instead of your classic movie reviews, the section is exploring more lifestyle issues and just things that impact students’ lives more.”

Where The Oracle falls short of The Alligator is in the quality and quantity of news coverage. Although The Oracle usually jumps four or five stories off the front page, the interior pages have little in the way of hard news. More importantly, news stories, especially article leads, often are dry and not as editorially tight as they should be. Now that The Oracle has established a strong design foundation, it’s time to focus on improving the writing and coverage.

Contact Lawrence at 813-974-6259, or visit www.usforacle.com.

Honorable Mention
The Future—University of Central Florida
With strong showings from Florida State University’s FSView and Florida International University’s Beacon, it was no easy task choosing this year’s honorable mention winner. However, the University of Central Florida’s Future takes third based on the sheer fact that it’s come so far in such a short time.

Three years ago, The Future was one of the worst student newspapers in the state—the writing was horrid, there wasn’t any design to speak of, and most UCF students didn’t even know it existed. Under new ownership, it’s gone from a rag only good for lining a birdcage to a newspaper that won first-place “Best of Show” honors at a national journalism conference in October 2002. “We’re all proud of how far this publication has come and vow to continue improving the design and content of The Future as it strives to better serve the university community,” says Brian Linden, co-publisher.

You’d be hard pressed to find any student newspaper in Florida that packages stories as well as The Future. Superb use of photos, infographics, and art elements make even the simplest stories immediately engaging to the reader. The article on forensic science in the Nov. 21 issue and the story on the UCF’s president’s raise in the Nov. 18 issue should be used by other papers as a model of how to effectively combine interesting stories with eye-catching design.

The Future’s biggest weakness is its consistently average writing. Leads are so dull it’s often difficult to get past the first paragraph, and copyediting is poor. However, with the vast improvements they’ve made over the last three years, UCF’s student newspaper may be the future of college journalism in Florida.

Contact Linden at brian@ucffuture.com, or visit www.ucffuture.com.