LLCC’s student newspaper, The Lamp, won first place in the John H. Ryan Best of Show for the best student website at the Illinois Community College Journalism Association’s fall conference on Thursday, Nov. 6.

“I’ve had a lot of students working hard to do hard news stories,” said Tim McKenzie, advisor of The Lamp and professor of journalism and humanities. “Our editor, Richard Bailey, has taken a lot of initiative and really done a lot to make The Lamp what it is.”

Typically, the award for Best of Show is given for the best single issue of the student newspaper, but because of limited printing of papers this year, the contest looked at websites. The judge noted that TheLampOnline.com had a lot new content, and it had a lot of hard news, not just opinion and features.

This is the second year in a row that The Lamp has won first place at the fall convention.

The fall conference was held virtually with a keynote speech from the founding editor of Deadspin, Will Leitch. Deadspin, part of Gawker Media, was the world’s largest sports entertainment blog shortly after Leitch’s founding of it.

McKenzie is a vice president of ICCJA. He introduced Leitch and facilitated two 20-minute breakout sessions. Bailey and LLCC students Emily Pasley and Nichole Sheley also attended the conference.