Student Publications News

WKU’s College Heights Herald newsroom, Student Publications Advertising sales team and Cherry Creative branded content studio brought home two national Pacemaker Awards – the premier honor in student media – from the Associated Collegiate Press spring national college media conference March 5-7 in San Francisco.

The College Heights Herald won the 2026 Online Pacemaker for its news website, WKUHerald.com, while the Advertising team and Cherry Creative combined to win the 2026 Student Media Business Pacemaker.

In addition, the Talisman life and culture magazine and website was a finalist for the Online Pacemaker for WKUTalisman.com. Earlier this academic year, the Talisman was awarded the 2025 Feature Magazine Pacemaker.

The Pacemaker is one of the oldest and is the most prestigious honor that student-run media outlets can earn, signifying they have reached an exemplary level of excellence. It is often likened to the Pulitzer Prize for collegiate publications.

For the Online Pacemaker, ACP judges evaluated the Herald’s website initially from the start of the 2025-26 academic year through December for its news, sports and feature coverage, as well as three online projects submitted by the publication. The Pacemaker was awarded to the Herald based on the quality of its online coverage from Feb. 1 through March 2, the period during which all finalists for the Online Pacemaker were judged for the final round.

The Student Media Business Pacemaker awarded to Student Publications Advertising and Cherry Creative assessed the students’ work on the business and revenue-producing side of college media for the 2025 calendar year. It is the third year in a row that WKU has won the Business Pacemaker, which assesses the challenges, results, creativity and innovation on the business side of student media.

Jake McMahon, a senior journalism major from Louisville, is the editor-in-chief of the College Heights Herald for 2025-26. Olivia Games, a senior marketing major from Bellevue, and Harrison Rogers, a senior marketing major from Louisville, are Advertising co-managers for 2025-26; Sarah Thompson, a senior graphic design major from Glendale, is Cherry Creative director for 2025-26; Keelin Davis, a May 2025 graduate, was advertising director and Nicole Johnson, a May 2025 graduate, was Cherry Creative director for Spring 2025.

Saturday’s announcement brings the number of Pacemakers won by WKU Student Publications to 53 since its first in 1978 for the Talisman, then a yearbook, and in 1981 for the Herald, then the campus newspaper. Of those 53 Pacemakers, 26 have been awarded to the Herald, 23 to the Talisman, three to Cherry Creative and Student Publications Advertising, and one to Cherry Creative alone.

Since 2012, the four student-led units that make up WKU Student Publications have been honored with Pacemakers 25 times, more than any other university in the country during that time. Since 2020, the four divisions have won 16 Pacemakers, also more than any other university during that period.

“These two latest Pacemakers underscore the quality of journalism and the depth of coverage produced by students at WKU,” said Chuck Clark, director of WKU Student Publications. “While the College Heights Herald won the Pacemaker, the Talisman was a finalist, and that’s a big deal. No other university had multiple finalists for the Online Pacemaker, so that tells you our students are doing something special here on the Hill.”

The third Pacemaker in a row for Student Publications Advertising and Cherry Creative shows that WKU is demonstrating excellence in its business operations, not only in its newsgathering, Clark said. “You rarely find a single program that is so strong both on the journalism side and the business side,” he said. “But that’s where we are at WKU, thanks to the hard work of our students and the skills they build here at WKU.”

Since ACP’s founding in 1921, the Pacemaker has been the most prestigious award that a student media outlet can receive. Both the Talisman and the Herald are in the ACP Hall of Fame, and both were named in 2022 to The Pacemaker 100, the most successful student media outlets in the award’s history, with the Herald ranking No. 6 in The Pacemaker 100 Top 10.

Carrie Pratt is adviser to the College Heights Herald. Clinton Lewis is adviser to Talisman and Cherry Creative. Avari Weis is adviser to Student Publications Advertising.

Also at last week’s conference, several WKU students earned honors in the ACP Advertising and Business Individual Awards:

n  First place, digital advertising: Kristen Duff, Ella Oakley, “WKU Tutoring Service.”.

n  Second place, social media campaign: Anthony Clauson, Emmy Libke, Jacob Sebastian, “WKU’s 3 Newest Dorms Close.”

n  Second place, special section: Keelin Davis, Olivia Games, Nicole Johnson, Harrison Rogers, “A Table for Y’all.”

n  Third place, audience engagement event: Staff, “Best of the Hill.”

n  Third place, media kit: Staff, “WKU Student Publications Media Kit.”

n  Fifth place, video advertisement: Lauren Howe, “Potter College.”

n  Honorable mention, video advertisement: Madeline Powell, “College of Health and Human Services.”

For more information: Chuck Clark, director, WKU Student Publications, chuck.clark@wku.edu, 270-745-4206.