The Michigan Interscholastic Press Association produces A Cut Above to showcase the best high school journalism in Michigan and to highlight best practices for student journalists and their advisers.
MIPA first produced A Cut Above as a print magazine in 1997, re-publishing the work of first-place winners in our annual statewide contests. In 2015, we launched this website.
We’re proud to highlight the outstanding work and the amazing student journalists who produced it in newspapers, via TV broadcast, on news websites or in yearbooks.
For judging, student media outlets that enter our contest are placed into divisions (based on school size for newspapers, video productions and news websites, and by page count for yearbooks) so that similar programs compete with each other. Division 1 includes the largest schools or books. We try to make sure each division includes an equal number of schools.
Within this site you will find work will find stories and art by first-place winners in each division. We have included category descriptions and judging criteria for each category.
If you would like to help judge entries for this year’s contest visit http://mipamsu.org/judge. Judging takes place at the Michigan State University School of Journalism.
Finally, I’d like to thank all the wonderful advisers, the MIPA executive board, The State News staff members, professional journalists, School of Journalism faculty and others who give up a chunk of a Saturday to help judge and encourage a new generation of journalists. Without you, of course, there would be no winners!
For complete information about all of the contests, please check out the MIPA website.
Sincerely,
Jeremy W. Steele
MIPA Executive Director