Hawaii Baptist Academy and Kamehameha Schools-Maui newspaper staffs won top honors Wednesday for best in state in the print and online competitions, respectively, in the 2012 Hawaii High School Journalism Awards.

In the public school division, Mililani High ran away with the most individual division awards — seven out of 13 — of any school, and placed third in the state for print and online.

‘Iolani School placed second overall in both categories.

The winners, selected from 23 participating schools using a point system, were announced Wednesday at a luncheon at the Pagoda Hotel.

The program is sponsored by the Hawaii Publishers Association, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and MidWeek.

Spotlight Hawaii Publishing provided a cash award in the print division and Hawaii News Now for the online division.

This year is the first the contest included an online division with four categories, but many schools do not have an online newspaper and two participants only have an online edition.

Hawaii Baptist’s editor-in-chief, Ethan Chun, credited the paper’s success in part with assessing each staffer’s strengths early on and using those strengths, as well as sharing ideas with one another.

Hawaii Baptist’s editorial writer Coel Oshiro, winner of the private school editorial writing division, said he always addressed both sides of any issue when writing on topics where there was conflict between the student body and the administration.

"It shows how a good editorial writer keeps a good balance and tries to get to the truth," he said.

Amanda Lee, news co-editor of Kamehameha Schools-Maui’s newspaper, found having seven co-editors rather than a single editor-in-chief and three staffers works well.

"We share the work, which is divided up by sections," she said. Everyone on the staff is required to write two stories a month to fill the quarterly print edition and their online edition. If they fail, points are deducted.

Mililani editor-in-chief Caitlin Kelly credited staff members for their paper’s success, saying, "They have a lot of heart, dedicating their time to producing the best product possible."

Assistant editor Shan Yonamine said the staff’s adviser "emphasizes everybody being a jack-of-all trades. … Everybody on our staff can do a little bit of everything."