The Scroggins Awards were presented in March at the Southern Interscholastic Press Association Convention in Columbia, South Carolina

Columbia, South Carolina, April 4, 2025 – The 2025 Scroggins Award Best of South in scholastic media were named at the 2025 SIPA Spring Convention. These media were chosen from among entrants across the South and display the highest excellence among middle and high school media programs. 

For broadcast, Scroggins Awards went to CRN-TV, Catawba Ridge High School, Fort Mill, South Carolina and East Cooper Student News, East Cooper Center for Advanced Studies, Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. 

For literary-arts magazine, Iliad, Clarke Central High School, Athens, Georgia, and Harmoniouslee, Lee High School, Huntsville, Alabama, received Scroggins Awards. 

For online media, BluePrints Online, Cedar Shoals High School, Athens, Georgia, ODYSSEY Media Group, Clarke Central High School, Athens, Georgia, and The Dispatch Online, James Bowie High School, Austin, Texas, were honored with the Scroggins Award. 

For newsprint, Scroggins Awards went to ODYSSEY Newsmagazine, Clarke Central High School, Athens, Georgia, The Dispatch, James Bowie High School, Austin, Texas, The Shield, McCallum High School, Austin, Texas, and Tribal Tribune, Wando High School, Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. 

Yearbook Scroggins Award winners were Mulberry Tree, Mulberry Senior High School, Mulberry, Florida, Legend, Wando High School, Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina and The Round-Up, Woodland Junior High School, Fayetteville, Arkansas. 

Southern Interscholastic Press Association Director Nina Brook said judges were impressed with the high quality of work among the almost 50 student media programs that entered the Scroggins competition. 

“It truly was hard to narrow down to the ‘best of the best’ among student media that are known for excellence in their individual states, our region and nationally,” Brook said. “The quality of the entries improves each year and showcases the way scholastic media is leading in innovation in today’s rapidly changing media environment.” 

In choosing the winners, judges noticed these areas of excellence: 

For broadcast, top programs have strong anchors, high production value and sophisticated on-screen graphics. These programs’ videography displays a variety of shots and angles as well as creative framing. Judges said these programs make the most of their newsgathering equipment. These shows feature interviews and sound bites in their stories and present a variety of content that is relevant to the audience. Anchors and reporters on these shows show strong on-camera performance. 

The best literary-arts magazines display a strong mix of prose and poetry, art and photography. The art and photography are appropriately paired with the literary content. The winning magazines have strong thematic development and organization of the content.  

For newsprint, both newspapers and news magazines, Scroggins winners display strong writing that avoids editorializing. These publications have a wide variety of coverage and localize regional or national stories for their audience. The stories are well sourced, well reported and well written. Layout and design of these publications demonstrates high level use of typography, hierarchy of story placement, the use of dominant visuals and strong visuals overall. 

Online media awarded with a Scroggins features up-to-date content and evidence of frequent posting. These sites are interactive, feature strong multimedia content and coverage that is exclusive to the online sites. Their overall visual formatting is user friendly, considers visual variety and news values in display. These sites feature alternative storytelling forms with infographics and a mix of long- and short-form stories. 

Scroggins Award winning yearbooks feature themes, stories, coverage, photos and design that speak to a contemporary audience. They are based on a strong visual and verbal theme. These publications include the important basics such as reader aids that orient the book in place and provide easy navigation for readers today and long into the future. They feature journalistic copy. Photos have captions and photo credits. Photos feature multi-sentence captions that contribute to the storytelling value. 

Scroggins Awards are presented annually by the Southern Interscholastic Press Association based at the College of Information and Communications at the University of South Carolina. The awards are named for Albert Scroggins, who served as dean of the College of Journalism at the University of South Carolina for 20 years. 

These winners were among finalists announced earlier this year by SIPA. Other finalists were, for broadcast, HCA Today, Horse Creek Academy, Aiken, South Carolina and Real TV, Stratford High School, Goose Creek, South Carolina. For literary-arts magazines, Little Blue Book, Cedar Shoals High School, Athens, Georgia. For online, The Shield Online, McCallum High School, Austin, Texas and Tribal Tribune, Wando High School, Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. For newsprint, Livewire, Bullitt East High School, Mt. Washington, Kentucky, BluePrints Magazine, Cedar Shoals High School, Athens, Georgia, and The Talon, Nation Ford High School, Fort Mill, South Carolina. For yearbook, Amethyst, Amherst County High School, Amherst, Virginia, and The Prowler, Kempner High School, Sugar Land, Texas.