Place Name: First Place Contestant Name: Edwardsville High School Entry Title: Tiger Times Online Entry Credit: Sami McKenney, Zach Kennett, Lillian Grave, Izzy Robinson, Logan Szymanski, Mary Morby, Atticus Ball, Sean Henson, Kaela Johnson, Kaitlyn Lemanski, Maggie Moseley Judge Comment: Nice header, footer, and main navigation. Homepage has clearly defined sections. Consider editing down lists to most recent 4/5 articles. Nice interactive poll. Story articles need more internal/external links and tags. Try to avoid using "Click Here" for links. Try more descriptive text that defines the call to action, such as Read More or Submit Application. Responsive mobile design. Passed core web vitals on desktop & mobile. Good job, Edwardsville!
Place Name: Second Place Contestant Name: Niles West High School Entry Title: Niles West News Entry Credit: Khadija Khan, Leila Meseljevic Judge Comment: Nice header with newsletter call to action. Homepage layout is good. Current content in every category with images. Robust multimedia section with a variety of content. News articles contain internal/external links & tagging. Good job including a contact form, newsletter, and advertising info. Consider adding these to your footer. Site has responsive mobile design. Passed core web vitals for desktop & mobile. Well done, Niles West!
Place Name: Third Place Contestant Name: Naperville Central High School Entry Title: Central Times Entry Credit: Central Times Staff Judge Comment: Nice header with date, social links, and search bar. Homepage layout is nice with good use of the announcements ticker to solicit reader-generated content. Consider adding some spacing between the navigation bar & the announcements ticker. Nice work utilizing pull quotes, internal/external linking, and flourish interactive graphs. Consider tagging stories. As a best practice, your site should showcase online content. News should be one of the first items in the menu and consider moving the E-Newspaper to after Media. Responsive mobile design. Great job, Central Times!
Place Name: Honorable Mention Contestant Name: Glenbard West High School Entry Title: The Glen Bard Entry Credit: The Glen Bard Staff Judge Comment: Thoughtful homepage layout. Organized main navigation bar. Nice featured article layout. Consider adding a more robust multimedia category with podcasts (or podcast recommendations), photo galleries, music playlists, and more video elements (long & short-form videos). I like the music playlist on homepage as it adds some interactivity. Some story articles have a good use of internal/external linking. Responsive mobile design. Good job, Glenbard West!
Place Name: Honorable Mention Contestant Name: Palatine High School Entry Title: PHS Cutlass Entry Credit: Karim Melek, Aishvir Kaur, Grace Wang, Anika Tsau, Didrik Caleja, Genevieve Jennings Judge Comment: Very clean header with good contrast and easy to find social links & search bar. Nice to see submit form to publish reader-generated content. Sports ticker breaks up the content on homepage well. I like the right rail with newsletter subscribe, translate, and trending stories. Nice about section with links to engage reader submissions for Letter to the Editor. Consider adding a multimedia section for photo galleries, podcasts, playlists, & videos. Responsive mobile design. Passed desktop core web vitals. Good job Palatine!
