BG Falcon Media will bring some hardware back to campus. Ohio’s Best Journalism 2026 competition announced award winners and BG Falcon Media earned first place for Best College Feature Writing, Best College News Writing and Best Newspaper.

The competition honors the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) ethics: Defense of the First Amendment, support of literacy, resistance to censorship, advocacy for openness of public records and meetings, media self-criticism and community service.

BG Falcon Media’s “Nearly Perfect: 1985 MAC champion football team’s 40th reunion” earned the Best College Feature Writing Award. Several students worked together on the project, including Sean Connelly, Kevin Hutchinson, Steven Schulden, Carter Leonard and Austin Roose.

Judges of the competition called the story a compelling retelling of the 1985 season, highlighting the quotes from several players on that 1985 team. The players were able to sit back and reminisce for a well-executed series of stories.

Grace Rooney’s piece on how BGSU navigated Ohio SB1 and federal initiatives won Best College News Writing. Judges maintained the article draws a line around the impact of a wide number of issues brought by SB1 stating that Rooney drew on good sources while remaining in control of the story, earning the readers trust. 

The BG News earned the top spot for Best College Newspaper behind editors Alivia Hartpence and Gabrielle Monk. Impressed with the BG News staff, judges said the newspaper provides quality content and an attractive look to compel readers.

Various stories within the newspaper were highlighted including the price of parking tickets, AI in the classroom, pups on campus and taking a different approach to sports.

Falcon Media Manager Karl Smith said the recognition is also a sign students are producing meaningful journalism.

“Seeing our students’ work recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists feels special and validates that they are doing work that aligns with SPJ’s mission,” Smith said.

This competition extends an impressive stretch of awards won by BG Falcon Media and Smith also highlighted the importance of competition.

“Contests provide an important benchmark for BG Falcon Media. They measure our students’ work against their peers, which makes it so incredibly gratifying to see our success over the past year,” Smith said. “Our students have struck an impressive balance of quantity – they created more than 1,800 pieces of content on our website alone last year – and quality – as evidenced by their impressive performance in this highly competitive contest.”