NSPA & ACP THROUGH THE DECADES

2007

< BOARD NAMES AIMONE

An award-winning journalism teacher and adviser is named NSPA/ACP executive director on April 27. Logan Aimone comes from Wenatchee (Washington) High School, where he has been a journalism teacher and student publications adviser for 10 years. He was named a Distinguished Adviser by the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund.

Blend Magazine Debuts

NSPA partners with Ball State University to publish Blend magazine. The magazine is mailed to all NSPA members and published until 2013.

GREAT RECESSION IMPACTS PROGRAMS

⊲ WORLDWIDE

2000 Hillary Clinton becomes the first former first lady elected to the U.S. Senate.

2001 In the worst terror attack in U.S. history, more than 3,000 people perish in New York World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. attacks.

2005 Hurricane Katrina blasts New Orleans causing destruction estimated at $26 billion.

2008 Barack Obama elected 44th President of U.S.

2010 Swine flu (H1N1), the first influenza pandemic in 40 years, sends masses into panic.

2011 Osama Bin Laden is killed after a 10-year manhunt.

2012 A gunman kills 26 people, mostly children, at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Connecticut, before killing himself.

2015 In a 5-4 decision the Supreme Court votes to allow same-sex marriages throughout the country.

As the country struggles with the Great Recession from 2007-2009, the impact on member schools is significant, reducing travel and in some cases membership. College newspapers cut pages, sections or publishing days or published online only, and some college yearbooks stopped publishing.

2008

PDF CRITIQUE FORMS BEGIN

NSPA is the first association to switch to PDF critique forms, making it much quicker to get critiques to and from judges while reducing shipping and printing expenses

2009

MULTIMEDIA GUIDEBOOK PUBLISHED

Debuting at the JEA/NSPA Phoenix convention, the Multimedia Guidebook offers the first published criteria used for contests and critiques. The open-source guidelines were adopted or adapted by several state associations. Website critiques are introduced.

FIRST-EVER CODE OF ETHICS

Randy Swikle writes the first-ever code of ethics for high school journalists. The Model Code of Ethics is sent to all NSPA members and included in adviser resource materials through some yearbook publishing companies.

RECORD-BREAKING CONVENTIONS

JEA/NSPA Washington, D.C., convention sets an attendance record at 6,353 that lasts for five years, only to be broken by the next D.C. convention in 2014 with 6,406 attendees.

2011

Acp Workshop Moves To Minneapolis

The ACP Summer Workshop moves to University of Minnesota with emphasis on hands-on application of newsroom training. CMA joined the workshop in 2016. In 2017, the College Media Mega Workshop was sponsored by ACP, CBI, CMA and CMBAM on the University of Minnesota campus. During the pandemic, the workshop switched to a virtual format. In 2022, an in-person workshop returned with ACP as sole sponsor.

CUTTING THE CAKE, executive director Tom Rolnicki and staff member Wendi Buck prepare to serve the approximately 200 advisers gathered to celebrate the 75h anniversary of NSPA at the Chicago Hyatt during the 1999 fall convention. The organization provided commemorative anniversary pins to Pioneer Award recipients in attendance.

ON-THE-SPOT REPORTING

Positioned by a power outlet, a high school journalist writes a news story for the on-site contest at the national convention using an electric typewriter. While technology has replaced typewriters with laptops and smartphones, the challenge of writing on deadline hasn’t changed.

At The Overhead

Making her point with the aid of visuals on the overhead projector, Susan Komandosky teaches a session called “Organizing for Success,” one of hundreds of educational sessions for students and advisers at the 1990 Indianapolis convention. Komandosky taught journalism and advised publications at Round Rock (Texas) High School.

ON-THE-SPOT ADVICE

Critique sessions were a popular offering at both scholastic and collegiate conventions. Mark Witherspoon, Iowa State University, offers detailed suggestions for a college newspaper editor.