CM Life receives 27 awards from Michigan Press Association

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Central Michigan Life has been awarded two first-place awards by the Michigan Press Association, the official trade organization for Michigan newspapers.

The two non-individual first-place awards were in the Online Newspaper and General Excellence categories. Brian Manzullo, 2009-10 editor in chief, redesigned the publication’s website in the summer 2009 and implemented it in fall 2009.

The difference in the website came with the transition in publishing systems used. WordPress replaced the previous system, College Publisher.

“The old system encouraged publishing everything at once,” Manzullo said. “This limited the paper to when they could publish throughout the day and the visual appeal of breaking news content.”

The new system is more user-friendly and allows for more up-to-date news, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, Manzullo said.

There is also more multimedia content that is now available, such as slide shows, photo galleries and videos.

The award in General Excellence is credited to the collaboration of the staff as a whole, Manzullo said.

“This is a testament to the program,” Manzullo said. “With the amount of awards that were received in the past, this is just a continuation of the consistency from year to year. It’s also a good measure of how we are doing.”

CM Life received 27 total MPA awards. Two of the individual awards went to photo editor Jake May. He received second place for both feature and sports photo categories.

The sports photo was of a basketball player framed through the legs of two other players jumping for a jump ball. The feature was a photo of the faith and pre-game rituals of two sister softball players.

“The photography department as a whole did a great job,” May said.

The direction that society is moving in is a fast one, Manzullo said, and CM Life is constantly changing with it.

“He (Manzullo) has set the staff up for an incredible path to continue down,” May said. “He’s set a learning curve at this newspaper that will benefit all of our future careers.”