Mill Valley News, the student journalism website of Mill Valley High School, was named one of 50 finalists nationwide for the 2013 National Scholastic Press Association Online Pacemaker contest. The Pacemaker is considered the Pulitzer Prize of high school journalism. This is the second year in a row the website has been named a finalist.

The finalists were selected from a record 252 entries and were chosen by a team of three professionals assembled from around the country. Entries were judged over the course several weeks, based on content, design, writing and editing, rich media and breaking news.

This year’s website editors are seniors Miranda Snyder and Alec Santaularia and junior Shelby Rayburn. The website is a collaborative effort between the JagWire newspaper, JAG yearbook and MVTV staffs. Their adviser is Kathy Hill Habiger.

Santaularia said the honor shows the judges valued the content we put up on the site each day.

“I was surprised. I had forgotten judging was still going on. Our website does a really good job of putting up new content and content that is relevent to our school and to our students. What we put up matters to the students,” Santaularia said.

Snyder is most proud of the group effort between the JagWire, the JAG and MVTV to make the site successful.

“I think it helped lighten the load on everyone and gave us more opportunities to put up more stories and photos. MVTV helps us give our readers the visual and audio aspectss to the stories. That helps bring the stories to life,” Snyder said.

The winners will be announced for the first time at the spring JEA/NSPANational High School Journalism Convention in San Francisco on Saturday, April 27. A complete list of all nominees in both categories can be found here.