Developing Coverage: Publish three fully-developed, separate stories over time about an ongoing news event in your community and link those stories together to give the reader context to a developing story/coverage.

1. All three stories are fully-developed and interview based.
2. The stories are published over time rather than all at once.
3. The stories are about the same ongoing news event in your community.
4. The stories are linked together to give the reader context to a developing story/coverage.
5. All three stories are from the current school year.

Quick Coverage: Publish three fully-developed stories within two days of the news events being covered. All of these stories must have been published during the current school year.

1. All three stories are fully-developed.
2. The stories are published within two days of the event being covered.
3. All three stories are from the current school year.

Sustained Coverage: Publish two fully-developed stories in each of four different categories over the course of four consecutive weeks during the current school year.

1. The stories in each submitted category are fully-developed.
2. In each submitted category, stories have been published twice per week over the course of four weeks.
3. The most recent stories in each submitted category are from the current school year.

To earn this badge, a news staff must customize their homepage beyond the initial SNO design with a clear sense of purpose for every element on the homepage.

1. DESIGN: The homepage has an image header.
2. DESIGN: The header image is high resolution, appropriately sized, and fits the homepage.
3. DESIGN: The homepage has?little to no trapped/unplanned blank space.
4. DESIGN: The homepage has a cohesive design/style?using no more than three different widget styles.
5. DESIGN: The homepage is customized to replace Showcase Carousel and Teaser Bar displays with widgets.
6. DESIGN: The site has a customized favicon.
7. DESIGN: The homepage has a distinct color scheme featuring no more than three colors and the colors are complimentary.
8. DESIGN: The homepage features no more than two fonts.
9. DESIGN: The publication?uses up style or down style for exclusively in all headlines.
10. IMAGES: No more than 30% of images are from creative commons.
11. IMAGES: Photos, including ads, display correctly with proper resolution and without appearing to be oddly cropped, edited, or broken.
12. IMAGES: Photos are consistently sized.
13. IMAGES: Photos are original or press release photos used with permission. Non-original photos are either used with permission or under fair use, and are credited appropriately.
14. IMAGES: The majority of stories on the homepage have photos, and at least half of the stories on the category pages have photos.
15. IMAGES: All photos are captioned and credited.
16. CONTENT: Categorization of stories is managed in a way that prevents obvious repetition of stories on the homepage.
17. CONTENT: All links on the navigation bar are active and link to current content.
18. CONTENT: There is an up-to-date Staff page that has individual staff profiles that link to the work of each staff member.
19. CONTENT: All staff profiles include a staff photo.
20. CONTENT:?There is an About page that has been updated with information from the current school year.
21. CONTENT: When social media icons are present, they link to active social media accounts.
22. CONTENT: There are no obvious spelling and grammatical errors.
23. CONTENT: Stories are no more than 4-6 weeks old.

To earn this badge, a news staff must submit eight fully-developed stories from the current school year that go beyond the text to enhance the reader’s experience.

1. Elements beyond the story itself (pictures, videos, pullquotes, polls, etc.) promote/enhance a story’s content and prevent long blocks of text.
2. The story pages are formatted with no large blank spaces, missing paragraph breaks, strange fonts, odd symbols, etc.
3. The story pages have photos that display at a proper resolution and that do not appear to be oddly cropped or doubled (the same image showing up twice in a story).
4. Photos and videos or elements (such as graphics or illustrations) on the story pages are captioned and credited.
5. Stories contain contextual hyperlinks that link to related or explanatory content.
6. The story page template used fits the content of the story (i.e. Briefs should not be on the long-form or full-width templates).
7. The story page template is built as intended (i.e. Long-form, Grid and Side-by-side stories should include chapters).

To earn this badge, a news staff must have had at least three stories published on Best of SNO, a site dedicated to excellence in student writing and multimedia, during the current school year. Once you have three stories published on Best of SNO, we’ll award this badge.

• TOPIC: Stories need to have appeal to an audience beyond your school community. Bring us something engaging and relevant. For a local story, make sure the context is clear. Topics should be current and can tie into a national conversation.
• QUALITY: Inspire others with your best work. From beginning to end, the polished story should really shine — nothing boring! Copy should be error-free, follow AP style and conform to the standards of good journalism. That means a strong lead, attributed quotes, and original work (not plagiarized).
• LENGTH: Stories should be manageable in a quick reading, so 300-800 words is the sweet spot. Have a clear focus and edit tightly.
• OPINIONS: Keep opinions to the opinion pieces, not in the news stories. Editorials, columns and reviews should have a voice and perspective. Writers must have authority and credibility on the topic.
• SOMETHING SPECIAL: Warm and fuzzy? Just plain weird? Maybe you have a great example of breaking news, a personality profile or review of a local band. If it wasn’t on your site, would you want to read it?
• STAND OUT: We’re looking for stories that stand out from the crowd.

To earn this badge, a news staff must submit at least three videos that each tells a story (are not broadcast or recap-type videos), three slideshows and three podcasts published this school year that meet standards of excellence in multimedia production.

Videos

1. CONTENT: Subject of each video lends itself to good video (motion, sound, etc.) and a compelling story line.
2. CONTENT: Each video contains at least two interviews.
3. CONTENT: Reporter voice-over is only used to bridge elements within the story.
4. CAMERAWORK: Each video uses a combination of wide shots, medium shots, and close-up shots.
5. CAMERAWORK: Each video uses three different camera angles.
6. CAMERAWORK: The footage is steady and not shaky.
7. CAMERAWORK: Panning and zooming are used purposely for emphasis.
8. CAMERAWORK: All shots have a clear visual focus.
9. CAMERAWORK: Backgrounds behind interviewees are appropriate and relevant for topic.
10. AUDIO/SOUND: Each video uses natural sound.
11. AUDIO/SOUND: Each video avoids using copyrighted music.
12. AUDIO/SOUND: The sound/voice quality on each video is clear and not lost in background noise.
13. EDITING: Length is appropriate for telling a story but not too long (90-150 seconds)
14. EDITING: Individual shots/clips are edited together to move the story forward.
15. EDITING: Technical quality of lighting doesn’t detract from the story.

Slideshows

1. CONTENT: Each slideshow has 8-15 unique photos (no duplicates or similar subjects). Slideshows with more than 15 photos will not be considered.
2. CONTENT: Each photo is captioned and credited.
3. CONTENT: Each photo has a clear subject.
4. CAMERAWORK: Each slideshow contains a mixture of close-up, medium, and far shots.
5. CAMERAWORK: Each photo demonstrates purposeful composition and skillful technical quality.
6. EDITING: Each photo is optimized for web display (horizontal crop and sized to at least 900 x 600 pixels).

Podcasts

1. Episodes should be interview-based.
2. All music is used with permission or is free-use and credited correctly.
3. Each episode contains an intro and outro.
4. Episodes should be 5-15 minutes in length.
5. Episodes contain a title and brief description.
6. Any music or background noise does not detract from the speakers.
7. Audio is edited together for a seamless transition between them.