New halo for The Saint

The University of St Andrews independent student newspaper “The Saint” has lifted one of the top awards in the Herald Scottish Student Press Awards 2004.

The Saint was voted Best Student Newspaper by The Herald judges in recognition of the work of an editorial team led by Editor Alex Brant-Zawadzki during 2003.

It’s the third year in a row The Saint has lifted the country’s top award for student journalism. As well as Best Newspaper it also boasts past honours for Best Design, Best News Writer and Best Student Journalist.

Brant-Zawadzki, who completed his award-winning term as Editor in November 2003, accepted the Best Student Newspaper Award from Herald Editor Mark Douglas-Home and insisted credit for the achievement lay with his editorial team colleagues.

“They successfully complemented my failings,” he said.

“The pressure of the previous awards was always in the back of our minds, but the hat-trick seemed such an impossible goal that in the end we could only focus on trying to make the paper work.”

The Saint has functioned as an independent student newspaper at St Andrews since 1997 when students changed the paper’s name from The Chronicle and ditched the original broadsheet format for tabloid.

The paper’s editorial team changes every 12 months and staff are nominated and elected in an open student vote.

It’s published fortnightly throughout term-time and has a cover price of 50p.