Thrilled to bits to see some of the excellent work my QMI/Sun Media colleagues at our newspapers around the country is being recognized today with National Newspaper Award nominations. The NNAs are the top annual awards — this 63rd competition — in the newspaper industry. There were more than 1,350 entries this year and out of those, the judges have picked 71 finalists in 22 categories. The winners will be recognized on April 27 at a ceremony in Toronto.
Sun Media/QMI is guaranteed to win at least one of those awards, having swept the nominations in the “Local Reporting” category. The nominees there are: Shawn Jeffords of the Sarnia Observer for stories of prescription pill abuse in the community; Sara Ross, Nathan Taylor and Teviah Moro of the Orillia Packet and Times (a paper I have a soft spot for as it was the first daily newspaper I worked for) for coverage of cronyism and lack of transparency in the hiring of a city manager; Paul Schliesmann of the Kingston Whig-Standard for an examination of recycling practices in the region; Mike Whitehouse of the Sudbury Star for stories of a sex scandal and the squandering of taxpayers’ money.
Other Sun Media/QMI nominees include:
- Mike Strobel, Toronto Sun, for story of disabled youth at a swimming meet in the Short Features category
- Benoît Gariépy of Le Journal de Québec for a photo of a disconsolate hockey player at the famed Quebec Peewee Tournament and Derek Ruttan of the London Free Press for a hurdles runner outdistancing his opponents at a high school meet in the Sports Photography category.
- London Free Press team for stories of a tornado in nearby Goderich in the Breaking News category
- Marc Beaudet, Le Journal de Montréal in Editorial Cartooning category.
You can check out the full list of all the nominees here.
Congratulations!
Avaaz, Don Newman, Margaret Atwood et al. must be having conniptions.
P.S. You may decide not to publish my previous comment … no problem if you decide not to. But I should have included Craig Oliver in my list!