CSPA Crown Awards

Your publication enters as a whole, so the entry is the year's work your staff has already produced, sent in the format you publish in. CSPA prefers PDFs and links uploaded online, using instructions it emails once your publication has joined, and accepts physical copies by mail when uploading isn't possible.

The real work is gathering the year's issues, exporting clean PDFs, naming each file the way CSPA asks and paying for the membership and Crown entry through the portal. CSPA suggests finishing the online application first, including payment if you can, and sending your materials straight after.

1. 1

   Print newspaper

   One PDF of the issues from the contest period, which CSPA sets at any six for middle and high school papers and up to 10 for college papers.

2. 2

   Magazine

   One PDF of the magazine issues from the contest period, or one copy.

3. 3

   Yearbook

   One PDF of the yearbook with the ads left out, or a physical copy.

4. 4

   Digital

   A working URL, added to your member profile.

5. 5

   Hybrid

   Your print issues plus a working URL.

A panel of Crown Judges looks at each publication as a whole, weighing everything of value to a reader or viewer across the five areas below. The panel meets virtually, generally reaches its decisions by consensus and compares each entry only with the same kind of publication from the same type of school, which means college, high school and middle school entries are judged separately.

• Content

• Design or presentation

• Coverage

• Photography

• Writing and editing

The judges are former student media advisers, professional journalists and specialists such as photographers, chosen by CSPA's director. A judge who has worked with a staff or adviser at a summer workshop sits out that publication, and CSPA doesn't use current advisers who may have entries or anyone employed or paid as a consultant by a printing company.

A Crown is recognition, not money. Publications win either a Gold Crown or a Silver Crown, and the Crown entry covers the judging, Crown Award certificates and access to a special edition Crown Awards slideshow. The award belongs to the publication and its staff, so no individual student is singled out.

For the 2026 round, Crowns are presented at the Crown Awards Convocation on the afternoon of Friday, 19 March 2027, which closes CSPA's Spring Convention at Columbia University in New York. Going to the convention is a separate registration, although the $55 membership fee can be used once as credit toward a 2026-2027 CSPA event. CSPA doesn't say whether a staff needs to be there to receive its Crown.

CSPA gives no entry counts or win rates, and there's no quota. The judges give as many or as few Gold and Silver Crowns as they think the entries deserve, so every strong entry in a category can win, and a weak field might produce none. CSPA's archive of Crown winners from 1982 to 2023 is the best guide to the standard, with long lists of winners in busy categories such as hybrid news and print yearbooks and only a handful in smaller ones.

• 2023

  High school Gold Crowns went to print yearbooks, print newspapers, print literary magazines, print and hybrid general magazines, a hybrid yearbook, a digital literary magazine, and digital and hybrid news sites.

• 2023

  Middle school Gold Crowns went to a print literary magazine and two print yearbooks, both from junior high schools in Arizona.

• 2023

  A hybrid news site from an American school in London and a print literary magazine from a school in Mexico City were among the high school Gold Crown winners.

• 2023

  Collegiate Gold Crowns included five hybrid news sites from US universities and colleges.

• 2022

  A hybrid general magazine from a university in Ontario, Canada, won a collegiate Gold Crown.

The points to watch are the membership setup, which school year counts, how CSPA classifies your publication and how you name your files.

• Membership comes first

  Only CSPA members can enter, membership is per publication and renewed every year, and it includes no contest entries, so the Crown entry has to be added separately.

• It's the previous school year's work

  Crowns judge work from the school year before the awards, so the 2026 round covered anything produced in the 2025-2026 academic year, while the Crowns are presented during the 2026-2027 membership year.

• A page of PDFs isn't a website

  A site that only posts PDFs of the print edition doesn't count as an online publication, and putting a PDF online doesn't make a print paper hybrid.

• Yearbooks enter as print

  In the Yearbook category, publications enter only under Print, yearbook PDFs shouldn't include ads, and schools with fall yearbooks are asked to email CSPA.

• Name your files CSPA's way

  PDFs should follow a set pattern such as 2026-Yrb-PublicationName-SchoolName.pdf, because CSPA receives hundreds of submissions and uses the names to find yours.

• The judges have the last word

  Crown Judges' decisions are final, and only results released by CSPA count as official.