SNO Sites’ recognition initiative makes its return on September 21 after a record-breaking submission period.
Best of SNO gives member schools a chance to nearly instantly gain recognition for their exceptional journalism.”— Kyle Phillips, SNO SitesHASTINGS, MN, UNITED STATES, August 27, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Inside the thousands of student newsrooms using the SNO Sites platform, journalists are producing more ambitious work and connecting with larger audiences than ever before. Their reporting is bold, polished, and deserves a broad readership, and Best of SNO—the program that celebrates the finest examples of that work—kicks off its 2026–2027 season on September 21.
Throughout the 2025–2026 academic year, SNO Sites received more than 15,000 story submissions for Best of SNO, equating to roughly 115 per school day, and republished over 2,000 of those on BestofSNO.com. With an increasing number of schools adopting SNO each month, this upcoming season is anticipated to be even more active.
“Best of SNO gives participating schools the chance to gain nearly immediate recognition for their excellent work, while also offering student journalists and advisers across the nation a central place to find current examples of outstanding student journalism,” said Kyle Phillips, the manager of the Best of SNO recognition program at SNO Sites, a company that delivers publishing solutions to thousands of high school and college journalism programs.
Best of SNO serves as the writing component of SNO’s Distinguished Sites recognition program. Any SNO Sites member can submit one eligible story per day during the academic year, and reviewers choose the top 10 to 15 percent for republication. Selection criteria are intentionally rigorous. Best of SNO functions both as a recognition effort and as an educational tool—one that rewards high-quality journalism and provides students nationwide with a benchmark to study and emulate.
The initiative also mirrors a larger shift in the media landscape. As local newspapers continue to vanish, student newsrooms increasingly take on coverage of school boards, city councils, and elections—subjects that once depended on shrinking print staffs. Best of SNO offers that reporting a national platform and one of the few sources of near-real-time feedback in the field.
Anyone can now watch that readership unfold in real time through SNO Trending Stories (trending.snosites.com), a free public tool that highlights the stories and topics gaining traction with audiences across the country as they pick up steam.
Best of SNO will start accepting submissions on September 21, 2026. Participating schools may submit one eligible story per day throughout the entire academic year.
About SNO Sites
Launched in 2008, SNO Sites provides fully managed WordPress publishing solutions for high school and college journalism programs. In recent years, a growing number of local, community, and nonprofit news outlets have also adopted the platform, attracted by the same hosting, design, training, and support SNO offers to thousands of newsrooms around the world. Together, they empower journalists to produce professional-caliber work.
Tom Hutchinson
SNO Sites
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