The ODYSSEY Media Group Editorial Board celebrates its National Scholastic Press Association Best of Show third place award for online publications at the National High School Journalism Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Nov. 9, 2024. The OMG website received a Pacemaker Award from the NSPA on April 26, its first Pacemaker since 2018. “We’ve improved our site in all the little ways rather than in wholesale changes,” OMG Editor-in-Chief Wyatt Meyer said. “We’ve posted more consistently this year than in any year during my (four-year OMG) tenure, we’ve worked to incorporate more visuals and variety of content and we’ve significantly expanded our user-friendly multimedia packages under (OMG Digital Editor) Lea (D’Angelo’s) leadership.” Photo by Victoria Garland
The National Scholastic Press Association recognized the ODYSSEY Media Group website with a Pacemaker Award on April 26.
On April 26, the National Scholastic Press Association bestowed the Pacemaker Award to 13 online student publications, among them, the ODYSSEY Media Group’s website. This is the first time the website has received NSPA’s most prestigious award since 2018.
The Pacemaker, created in 1921, is one of NSPA’s oldest scholastic journalism awards. Over the years, it has grown from celebrating newspapers to other domains, including websites, yearbooks, magazines and broadcast programs. After being recognized on March 12, the 34 online Pacemaker finalists were judged solely on their news product.
“The Pacemaker is the association’s preeminent award,” Executive Director Laura Widmer stated in the NSPA’s press release on April 26. “NSPA is honored to recognize the best of the best.”
“If our younger staff could do as much as we did this year, I’m excited to see what we can do next year with more veterans.”
— Lea D’Angelo,
OMG Digital Editor
The website and ODYSSEY Newsmagazine have been nominated and awarded the Pacemaker before, with the newsmagazine being a finalist in 2009, 2011, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2023, with a win in 2011. The website was nominated in 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2018 and won in 2013 and 2018.
“The announcement that we were a finalist was a shock in itself, but when we did win, the prevailing feeling was pride that our work over the last months had been rewarded,” OMG Editor-in-Chief Wyatt Meyer said. “We have (shown) ourselves to be a publication that can distinguish itself in print at a national level. Now the same is true of web.”
The 2024-25 school year was OMG Digital Editor Lea D’Angelo’s first year on the Production staff, so she was surprised at the website’s success but proud of how far she’s come since the beginning of the year.
“I think I’m just excited to see what we can do,” D’Angelo, who will be the OMG’s Digital Editor-in-Chief during the 2025-26 school year, said. “If our younger staff could do as much as we did this year, I’m excited to see what we can do next year with more veterans.”
The Pacemaker awards were announced at the JEA/NSPA Spring National High School Journalism Convention awards ceremony in Seattle, Washington on April 26, where OMG adviser David Ragsdale was in attendance as a presenter and as JEA State Director for Georgia. Not only did the publication receive accolades, but Ragsdale was formally commended on April 24 for his “continued commitment and hard work” in scholastic journalism.
“It was a shock to be commended by JEA for what I believe to be doing the right thing. What wasn’t shocking was to see the recognition for the OMG site and iliad – those kids work incredibly hard and have their respective EICs do all they can to foster an environment that yields fair, ethical and varied storytelling,” Ragsdale said.
