For the fourth year in a row, the Daily Iowan has won the national Newspaper Pacemaker Award: College journalism’s equivalent to the Pulitzer Prize. 

The Pacemaker Award, which is administered through the Associated Collegiate Press, is the biggest award that can be achieved by college media. Upon being named this year’s recipient, the Daily Iowan (DI) has now officially earned 10 Pacemakers total.

Jason Brummond—President and Publisher at Student Publications, Inc.—oversees operations at the DI as well as the Mount Vernon Lisbon Sun and Solon Economist. He said that with the help of the executive editor, managing editors and coaches, the DI identified and submitted its best three issues of the year to put itself in the running for this award. 

“To get to the point of getting submitted from us…it’s a pretty high standard to make it to that,” he said.

Brummond explained that choosing which issues to submit was a rigorous and tough decision-making process. When it came to picking individual stories, he considered three different factors: The story’s impact on the audience, the significance of the news, and the execution of the idea.

Keeping impact, significance and execution in mind, Brummond and his team were able to not only choose which three issues to submit, but also which individual stories to enter into the categorical competitions. He said the four main categories are in relation to newspaper, online, broadcast and multi-platform pieces. The DI was allowed to submit two stories per category.

With her broadcast news story “The Reality of Underage Drinking Culture,”—Hannah Fideli, an SJMC senior and peer mentor—won third place in this category. Fideli is currently an arts culture reporter with DITV, and following her graduation in the spring of 2026, she plans to work in broadcast news as a reporter.

Fideli first pitched her winning piece in the fall of 2024. She said that this story was her first signature package, and this project all stemmed from one question: Why is underage drinking such a prevalent issue in Iowa City?

“I spent months getting sources, conducting interviews, I went to bars, I went to bouncers, the police officers here, the county ambulance director, a doctor…some students who had some negative experiences with underage drinking…” she said. “I even did a ride along with the police department to see what they do on a night out…”

According to Fideli, this successful piece was a product of extensive experimentation; that is, with graphics, visual and voice effects, interactive stand-ups, and even with how the story is narrated. Although she received some guidance from a former news director as well as DITV coaches regarding story angles, sources and data, Fideli primarily crafted this piece on her own.

“It was a harder topic to get people to talk about,” she said. Taking journalistic ethical principles into consideration, Fideli granted anonymity to sources who spoke out about their experiences with underage drinking. She was able to use silhouettes and lower voice pitch to respect these individuals’ privacy.

Along with anonymity, Fideli ensured to fully inform sources about her story and how information would be used. She also gained approval from all necessary sources—including law enforcement, bouncers and students—before moving forward with her piece.

To achieve a national award like such, Fideli said both patience and persistence are required. Throughout the production process, she found herself constantly fact-checking, building relationships with sources, gathering video content, and editing the package to make it clear as well as concise.

All in all, Fideli’s biggest takeaway from this achievement was that in the end, hard work pays off.

“...just knowing my value and knowing the value you have as a reporter, you have to just keep going because it’s such a hard thing to do, especially with tough stories like this…” she said. “It’s a hard balance to have, and you have to just have so much confidence going into it.”

Along with Fideli’s accomplishment, ten other SJMC students and alumni had their pieces recognized at the ACP Awards. 

In the top five, Emily Nyberg’s feature story “Death doulas show end-of-life care through a different lens” won first place. Next, Marandah Mangra-Dutcher’s informational graphic “Who Owns Downtown Iowa City?” and Jordan Barry’s feature photo “Bicycle Bridge” won second place in their respective categories. Finally, Collin Carrithers, Elise Gan, Cole Krueger and Ryan Paris’ broadcast sports story “Iowa City Welcomes Home Caitlin Clark” won fifth.

Other SJMC students in the top ten were recognized as honorable mentions. Isabella Tisdale’s “Putting a Pin in History” placed in the multimedia sports story category. The same can be said for Tisdale, Marandah Mangra-Dutcher and Jami Martin-Trainor’s “Hardwood meets the heartland in Iowa women’s basketball coach Jan Jensen.”

Along with these multimedia sports stories, Emma Calabro, Jordan Barry and Cody Blisset’s photo slideshow “Gabe’s 50th” was recognized. Finally, Barry’s environmental portrait “Underground Wrestler” and Blisset’s sports feature photo “Soccer” placed in the top ten as well.

Along with these numerous awards won by current SJMC undergrads, alumni Jami Martin-Trainor won Reporter of the Year. Finally, the DI as a whole placed fourth for Best of Show in the Newspaper category, whereas DITV placed fourth in the Broadcast News Program category.

Looking back on the DI and DITV’s achievements, Brummond expressed his pride in these accomplishments as well as the work of all staff he oversees.

“It’s a really incredible accomplishment,” he said. “If you look at our list of award winners and honorees, it quite literally covers every section and every media of the organization, and certainly the Newspaper Pacemaker Award is a big deal. It’s a high honor and it reflects the outstanding work that the entire team is doing…”

To continue this legacy and work toward this same goal next year, Brummond said the DI and DITV will work to maintain a high standard of excellence. He mentioned that they will also use this success as motivation and drive to produce greater work in the future.