In its second year online, The Red Ledger, the school’s online newspaper, has been named a finalist for the 2013 National Scholastic Press Association Online Pacemaker contest. A Pacemaker award is the highest honor for high school journalism.

50 finalists were chosen from 252 entries, 30 for schools with more than 1500 enrollment and 20 for schools with less than 1500 enrollment, with The Red Ledger falling under the latter. The finalists were chosen by a team of three professional journalists from around the country. Entries were judged over the course of February and March based on content, design, writing and editing, multimedia and breaking news.

Co-editor-in-chiefs Ginger Hervey and Liz Schasel set the goal of being a Pacemaker finalist at the end of the 2011-2012 school year.

“Ever since I went to the Seattle convention last spring and heard Pacemaker finalists talking about their sites, I knew that was where we wanted to be,” Hervey said. “It felt ambitious since we had only been online for one year, but we knew it was a goal worth having.”

With a much bigger staff than previous years, The Red Ledger has found it easier to publish content more frequently.

“We amped up our social media, interactive stories, audio components, and video content, and publish at least three articles daily,” Hervey said. “It’s so satisfying to see our hard work paying off.”

While the staff is excited about the national recognition, it’s the day-to-day acknowledgement on campus and throughout the community that they are most proud of.

“People have come up to me this year just to compliment the site, and I think that’s the biggest reward of all,” Hervey. “When something happens in the school, students check The Red Ledger to get the story. That’s all we could really ask for.”

Adviser Brian Higgins believes his staff has what it takes to win a Pacemaker.

“I figure since we’ve gotten this far, might as well win the whole thing,” Higgins said.

The winners will be announced for the first time at the spring JEA/NSPA National High School Journalism Convention in San Francisco on Saturday, April 27. A full list of the finalists can be found here.