Since the 2016-17 school year, the Central Digest has worked towards earning School Newspapers Online’s (SNO) Distinguished site status, and the staff looked to continue this streak. This school year has provided endless challenges for the staff, but it did not stop them from achieving this goal.

SNO Distinguished Site is awarded awarded when entrants earn six badges: Best of SNO, Engagement, Multimedia, Coverage, Story Excellence, and Coverage.  Best of SNO requires at least three stories to be selected and re-published as a Best of SNO story.

“The Best of SNO reviewers like good journalism –– engaging, concise, and relevant. Whether local or global, stories should provide a larger context and provoke discussion,” explained the Best of SNO requirements.

Engagement consists of social media presence and overall site traffic.  Multimedia is composed of content beyond just text: photos, videos, and podcasts.  Story Excellence urges  students to use multiple layouts for their work. Coverage holds students accountable for a steady and informative site output.  Site Excellence ensures the appearance and organization of the site is of the highest quality.

“Representing what SNO sees as the six components of a modern news website, these six individual badges make up the SNO Distinguished Sites program,” wrote Ivy Kaplan, SNO Distinguished Sites Committee Chair.

On March 23, it was announced that the Central Digest had met the prerequisites of all six badges, earning SNO Distinguished Site status for the fifth consecutive year.

“The staff truly worked like a team. Everyone was willing to assist anyone with a story — which is the ‘Digest way,’ but it was even more important this year when getting in touch with others is often more difficult than usual. I couldn’t be more proud of their attitude and work ethic,” said Gregory Cantrell, advisor of the Central Digest.

A list of all student publications participating the SNO Distinguished Sites program and their status can be found here. At the time of writing, the Central Digest was one of 37 distinguished sites. At the time of writing, the Digest remained the only student publication in the state of Tennessee to earn this distinction.

“This is a goal of ours for the past five years and now it is an expectation. This is an opportunity to challenge ourselves to meet the expectations that SNO sets. We know it’s not going to be easy every year, but we have managed to succeed through hard work and tremendous leadership and support,” said Cantrell.

The Central Digest staff celebrates earning the Distinguished Site status once again. We look forward to a productive end to this school year, and we hope to continue our success into the following years.