…kinda
Salient scored four first place awards at the Aotearoa Student Press Association (ASPA) Awards on Saturday 25 September, but just missed out on Best Publication, placing second behind Otago University’s magazine Critic.
Held at Auckland’s Romfords, the awards were hosted by 3News entertainment reporter David Farrier, and were attended by a number of student media types from magazines around the country.
Salient’s Elle Hunt and Uther Dean picked up Best Feature Writer and Best Reviewer respectively, Juliette Wanty shared Best Cover with AUT’s Debate and Massey Albany’s Satellite, and Salient’s series on the closure of enrolments shared the title of Best Education Series with Critic.
Other placings included Lauren Priestley’s second for Best Unpaid News, Juliette Wanty’s second for Best Design, Molly McCarthy’s second Best Paid News and Best Humour Writer (shared with InUnison and Craccum) and Liz Willoughby-Martin’s third Best Columnist (shared with Gyro). Salient also placed second equal for Best Original Photography and third equal in the Best Website and Best Headline categories. Free wine and calamari flowed freely, with a number of staff stealing bottles of wine from other tables when the three allocated bottles ran out.
Despite missing out on the glory of Best Publication, Salient staffers felt the ASPAs went well overall and even awarded themselves first places in the ‘Babelient’ and Best Team Spirit categories.
A more informal account of the awards can be found in the centre-fold of this week’s issue of Salient.