From the Nominator

For our "State" alumni magazine, I researched and wrote a nontraditional listicle-type story, which ranked and included anecdotes about the top 50 concerts of the past 50+ years at Illinois State University. I spent several months researching the story, working with our University Archives and Student Affairs staff to create a comprehensive list of concerts. With the help of my editorial colleagues, I selected 50 shows and ranked them primarily based on artist notoriety, while attempting to balance genres and decades. My sources for the sidebar anecdotes included a longtime manager of Braden Auditorium (a campus venue that turned 50 in 2023) and a longtime entertainment editor from our local newspaper. I also scoured our student newspaper archives. For imagery, I worked with University Archives and the McLean County Museum of History to obtain hundreds of negatives shot by our local newspaper, which we had digitized and used in the print and online versions of the story. We also collaborated with our web team to create the story's web page, which included dozens of photos, newspaper clippings, posters, ticket stubs, and links to video and audio from many of the shows. The print and online versions included calls for alumni to share their concert memories; we received hundreds of responses that we will use to shape a follow-up story. The piece also performed very well on social media, where it generated 53,567 impressions on Instagram and 22,181 impressions on Facebook.

From the Judges

What a great story to celebrate the 50th anniversary of a landmark auditorium. We agreed that the story was well researched and put together, with great use of historic photos and other detailed visuals.