Place Name: First Place Contestant Name: West Chicago High School Entry Title: Wildcat Chronicle Entry Credit: Romeo Alfaro, Gabriella Castro, Aly Dusing, Ruby Guerrero, Ana Hurtado, Damian Lopez, Leo Mendez, Sami Moesch, Miley Pegg, Jonathan Saucedo, Sam Suarez, Mariah Varnado, Ja'Nyah Villa Judge Comment: Appealing header & layout with the Latest Stories ticker and well placed social media links. Organized navigation. Current content with nice visuals. Good organization with thoughtful homepage/landing page layouts. Comment section with likes and engagement. Great use of quotes & in-article photos, tagging, and internal/external linking. All great for SEO. Good use of story layout options; featured articles with long-form layout & large format images. Each section has it's own style while still maintaining a theme. Nice way to personalize the interactive multimedia section. Great interactivity throughout the site with polls, quizzes, commenting, likes, playlists, vlogs, etc. Images all seem well optimized and include title, credit/source, caption, and alt text. Responsive mobile design. All elements are here. Well done, Wildcats!
Place Name: Second Place Contestant Name: McHenry High School Entry Title: The McHenry Messenger Entry Credit: Lily Adams, Ffion Curtain, Rose Wenckebach Judge Comment: Content is current and organized. Great homepage layout. Consistent category layout with nice use of right rail with multimedia & trending stories. I like the social media links in the header; consider re-arranging position on the header. Creative visuals for articles stand out. Nice galleries & multimedia section layout is good. Stories have tagging, but need more internal & external links. Nice staff profiles & bios. Consider adding a footer with About & Contact links. Responsive mobile design. Nice to see interactive puzzles & editorial cartoons. Great job!
Place Name: Third Place Contestant Name: Prospect High School Entry Title: ProspectorNow.com Entry Credit: Claire Wynkoop, Alyssa Kowols Judge Comment: Appealing header with date & social icons. Interactive navigation drop down content. Above nav ticker soliciting audience engagement is informative, as well as the breaking news spot. Consider using the ticker for breaking news and the top right space for a call to action for audience engagement depending on which one is subject to change more frequently. Sports scores and graduation countdown is a good way to break up content. Nice story page layout options. Consider only using the long-form format for "featured" articles and a lower key template for regular news articles that include a right rail for quick access content. Need more attention to image optimization & credit attribution. Responsive mobile design. Good job!
