The Antelope has grown over the past eight years, and the students working at the newspaper have received professional development in the field of journalism and beyond. The newspaper won several Golden Leaf, College Media Association and Associated College Press awards in the past year.
Jenna Heinz, the editor-in-chief of The Antelope, said that working at the newspaper has given her leadership experience.
“Being editor-in-chief of The Antelope hasn’t just changed my college experience,” Heinz said. “It’s shaped it. When I walked onto campus as a freshman, I wouldn’t have thought that I would be in this big leadership position and it’s both challenged me and helped me grow as a leader.”
The Antelope offers courses in news writing, audio, video, advertising and social media management. Students can also work in paid positions for the paper.
Jacob Rosdail, the chair of UNK’s Department of Communication, said that writing for The Antelope gives students valuable professional experience.
“It helps prepare you for a career, even if it’s not in journalism,” Rosdail said. “Anytime you’re writing and working on a project for an audience, you’re preparing for the real world.”
However, the students have not been the only ones growing on campus. The newspaper itself has seen several improvements over the years.
In addition to winning Best Overall Newspaper for five years in a row, The Antelope’s staff won 36 awards at the Golden Leaf Awards in 2025, surpassing the newspaper’s 17 awards in 2019. At the Associated College Press awards, The Antelope won second place in the Best of Show category and seventh place Best of Show for its website for schools with an enrollment under 15,000.
The College Media Association’s Pinnacle Awards also recognized UNK’s student newspaper. The Antelope won second place for best weekly newspaper and Heinz won second place in the Best Editorial category for schools with an enrollment between 5,000 and 9,999 students.
Rob Breeding, the adviser for The Antelope, said that the awards reflect the newspaper’s growth.
“You don’t do journalism to win awards,” Breeding said. “That’s not the point. But the awards are a reflection of how good the journalism you’re doing really is.”
The faculty adviser said that he has seen a positive change in the newspaper over the years that he has been on campus.
“The way our students consider and appreciate the newspaper has changed in a positive way over the eight years I’ve been here, and that’s because the newspaper has been getting better the entire time,” Breeding said. “There’s this trajectory that has been created by the students about how we want to make this newspaper and this news organization.”
Ralph Hanson, a retiring journalism professor who started teaching at UNK in 2008, said that the impact of the newspaper’s adviser and editors on its growth has not been unnoticed.
“We’ve had a couple of good editors in the last two, three years who I think have made a real mark on The Antelope, so I think it’s been having a real high level of work in recent years,” Hanson said. “I think that Rob has done an excellent job with the paper and has gotten students to push themselves.”
The Antelope is available in both print and digital formats. Staff are working on different distribution methods for the newspaper in the future as it grows and the media landscape changes.
