FCSPA Selects The Reporter As Top Paper In The State For 15th Year In A Row
For the 15th consecutive year, The Reporter has been named the top two-year student newspaper in the state by the Florida College System Publications Association.
Winners were announced on Nov. 14 in Ocala at the organization’s yearly awards banquet. The contest was based on work produced during the 2024-25 school year.
“The honor showcases the legacy the newspaper has built and the quality work produced while serving the community,” said Isabella Arce, who served as The Reporter’s editor-in-chief during the 2024-25 academic year. “I couldn’t be any prouder of our team.”
The Reporter was recognized in 14 of 19 individual categories including, 10 first-place honors: News Story, Feature Story, Sports Writing, Social Media, Sports Column, Illustration, Feature Photo, News Photo, Website and Design.
During its 15 years, the newspaper has won 222 awards from the FCSPA, including 141 first-place honors. The monthly publication prints 10,250 copies per print cycle and is distributed at all eight Miami Dade College campuses.
The newspaper is augmented by a bi-weekly newsletter, website and has a social media presence on Twitter, TikTok and Instagram.
Two other MDC publications placed in the top three in their division in the magazines portion of the contest.
Urbana, the literary magazine at Eduardo J. Padrón Campus, won second place overall in Division A and Miambiance, the literary and arts magazine at Kendall Campus, placed second overall in Division B.
Miambiance won individual first-place honors in the following categories: Poem, Fiction, Art Works, Photography and Staff Page.
In October, the publication won a first-place Pinnacle Award in the Two-Year Literary Magazine of the Year category. That honor is awarded by the College Media Association.
“I’m proud of all the work that we put into it, and I’m glad that we had such a diverse amount of works that we were able to submit and gain recognition for,” said Salma Gonzalez, head designer of Miambiance.
Urbana won individual first-place honors from FCSPA in the following categories: Nonfiction, Contents Page and Staff Page.
“I’m very happy to see that [Volume 18] is actually impacting people the way that we wanted…we wanted to showcase this Hispanic identity, and we actually achieved that,” said Roxana Rodriguez, who served as co-editor-in-chief of Urbana during the 2024-25 school year. “I just wanted to say thank you to all the people who work in the magazine and were able to make this possible.”
Two other MDC magazines won individual first-place honors in Division A. North Campus’ AXIS magazine won top honors for their cover and Café Cultura, the literary arts magazine at Hialeah Campus, won first-place in the Art Work—Invividual category.
StoryBytes, the first student-led podcast platform at Kendall Campus, which launched in 2024, won its first FCSPA award, taking home top Podcast honors.
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