Nominations for the 68th National Newspaper Awards

TORONTO, March 20, 2017 /CNW/ - Toronto's Globe and Mail leads all entrants in the 68^th National Newspaper Awards competition with 19 nominations.

Montreal's La Presse has nine finalists, the Toronto Star eight, the Canadian Press five, and the Saskatoon StarPhoenix and Winnipeg Free Press each have three nominations in the competition, which is open to daily newspapers, news agencies, as well as online news sites approved for entry by the NNA Board of Governors.

Other organizations with multiple nominations include the National Post, Le Droit, the Toronto Sun and the Calgary Herald/Calgary Sun with two each.

Fifteen other organizations received one nomination each.

There are 70 nominations in 21 categories, selected from 959 entries for work published in 2016. Of 54 newspapers, news agencies and online sites to submit entries, 25 organizations have been nominated as finalists.

The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in Toronto on Friday, May 5. Winners will receive cheques for $1,000 and a certificate of award. Other finalists receive citations of merit.

A panel of former winners will choose the Journalist of the Year from this year's winners. The name will be revealed at the gala after all category awards have been announced. The Journalist of the Year receives $2,500.

This is the 68th year for the awards program, and the 28th year under the current administrative structure.

Highlights of this year's nominations:

• There are 32 first-time finalists. Seven of ten provinces are represented in the nominations.
• Isabelle Hachey of La Presse is a finalist in three categories: International, Investigations, and Long Feature.
• Mark MacKinnon of the Globe and Mail is a double nominee, in Business and International. It is the 10^th and 11^th time he has been a finalist. He is a five-time winner of National Newspaper Awards.
• Randy Turner of the Winnipeg Free Press is also a double nominee, in Sports and Arts & Entertainment.
• The Globe and Mail's Grant Robertson, nominated in Explanatory Work, is a 10th-time finalist who has won five previous awards.
• Nominated for a fourth consecutive time is Mark MacKinnon of the Globe and Mail.
• Nominated for a second consecutive year are Melissa Martin and Randy Turner of the Winnipeg Free Press.
• The Globe and Mail's Brian Gable, nominated in Editorial Cartooning, is a finalist for the 16^th time. He has won six previous times.

The nominees:

Arts and Entertainment

• Randy Turner and John Woods, Winnipeg Free Press, for their coverage of the Inuit art movement and the planned Inuit Art Centre
• Murray Whyte, Toronto Star, for coverage of Wanda Nanibush, the first curator of indigenous art at the Art Gallery of Ontario, as well as coverage of a Canadian-made musical, Come From Away
• Sylvie St-Jacques, La Presse, for her coverage of a musical camp and its impact on newly arrived Syrian refugees

Beat Reporting

• Theresa Boyle, Toronto Star, for coverage of health issues
• Patrick White, Globe and Mail, for coverage of Canada's prisons
• Charles Hamilton, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, for coverage of crime and justice
• Sara Mojtehedzadeh, Toronto Star, for coverage of labour issues

Breaking News

• Saskatoon StarPhoenix for coverage of the La Loche school shooting
• Edmonton Journal/Edmonton Sun/Fort McMurray Today for coverage of the wildfire and the evacuation of Fort McMurray
• La Presse for coverage of the explosion of a truck carrying 45,000 litres of diesel fuel on busy Metropolitan Boulevard at rush hour
• Metro Calgary/Metro Edmonton for coverage of the wildfire and the evacuation of Fort McMurray

Business

• Mark MacKinnon, Globe and Mail, for a story on how Bombardier does business in a murky market like Russia
• Marina Strauss, Globe and Mail, for a look into the dramatic and fast-paced changes in the retailing sector
• Bruce Livesey, National Observer, for coverage of the Irving family dominance in New Brunswick

Columns

• Stéphanie Grammond, La Presse, for personal finance columns on pharmacies, banks and pharmaceutical companies
• Melissa Martin, Winnipeg Free Press, for columns on Gord Downie, the right to die and a small-town Pride parade
• Doug Saunders, Globe and Mail, for columns on gun ownership, sex crimes in Sweden and school bullies
• Dawn Dumont, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, for commentary from the perspective of an indigenous woman embracing her heritage

Editorial Cartooning

• Brian Gable, Globe and Mail
• Guy Badeaux, Le Droit
• David Parkins, Globe and Mail

Editorials

• Ariane Krol, La Presse
• Tony Keller, Globe and Mail
• Jordan Himelfarb, Toronto Star

Explanatory Work

• Ann Hui, Globe and Mail, for probing the treatment of hens and the resulting egg products
• Steve Buist, Hamilton Spectator, for explaining how immunotherapy offers the best hope to tame cancer
• Grant Robertson and Karen Howlett, Globe and Mail, for reporting on the deadly opioid crisis
• Anne Jarvis and Dave Battagello, Windsor Star, for reporting on the long-awaited Gordie Howe International Bridge linking Windsor and Detroit

Feature Photo

• Dario Ayala, Montreal Gazette, for a photo of a romantic moment during a heavy downpour
• Leah Hennel, Calgary Herald/Calgary Sun, for a photo of a horseback rider out on the range
• Andrew Vaughan, Canadian Press, for a winter surfing photo

International

• Mark MacKinnon, Globe and Mail, for reporting on Syria, Brexit and Turkey
• Isabelle Hachey, La Presse, for coverage of Big Tobacco's move into Malaysia, Kenya and other poor countries
• Richard Warnica, National Post, for coverage of the U.S. presidential race

Investigations

• Isabelle Hachey, La Presse, for coverage of the thriving Cambodian "voluntourism" industry and the fraud artist orphanage owners who drive it
• Kathy Tomlinson, Globe and Mail, for her exposé of unsavoury practices fuelling the Lower Mainland real estate boom in B.C.
• David Bruser and Jayme Poisson, Toronto Star, for their series on 50 years of mercury leaching in northwestern Ontario
• Randy Richmond, London Free Press, for his coverage of the wilful indifference that led to the death of a prisoner found unresponsive on a police cell floor

Local Reporting

• New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal team, for in-depth coverage of a day in the life, the history and the economy of a critical part of the community
• Joe Fries, Penticton Herald, for coverage of how government institutions respond to Freedom-of-Information requests
• Paul Schliesmann, Kingston Whig-Standard, for reporting on the plight of marginalized people and their shocking living standards
• Justine Mercier, Le Droit, for the sad, shocking story of one family's journey through the health-care system

Long Feature

• Christina Frangou, Globe and Mail, for a gut-wrenching and sometimes disturbing story of a young widow's life in the aftermath of her husband's death
• Amy Dempsey, Toronto Star, for a story on the miscarriage of justice that resulted in a mentally-ill Canadian ending up in one of American's most notorious prisons
• Isabelle Hachey, La Presse, for the story of a woman's four-year nightmare in the grips of an impostor

News Feature Photo

• Nathan Denette, Canadian Press, for capturing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau waving a flag during a Pride parade
• Jason Franson, Canadian Press, for his photo of police directing traffic at the Fort McMurray wildfire
• Veronica Henri, Toronto Sun, for her picture showing Rob Ford's eight-year-old son holding a poster in the doorway of his home

News Photo

• Mark Blinch, Reuters, for a picture of a shirtless detainee who had been protesting the not-guilty verdict of radio host Jian Ghomeshi
• Stan Behal, Toronto Sun, for a photo of a grieving father whose daughter was killed in an automobile accident
• Amber Bracken, Globe and Mail, for a photo of a man being treated with milk of magnesia after being pepper-sprayed

Politics

• Paula Simons, Edmonton Journal/Edmonton Sun, for her investigation into the death of a four-year-old First Nations foster child
• Steven Chase, Globe and Mail, for coverage of the Canadian government's $15-billion deal to sell weaponized armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia
• Globe and Mail team for coverage of "cash for access" fundraisers that bring together Liberal politicians and those lobbying the government

Presentation

• Christopher Manza, Globe and Mail, for crafting story designs specifically for digital platforms
• Philippe Teisceira-Lessard, Louis-Samuel Perron, Sophie Allard, Véronique Beaudet and Francis Auger, La Presse, for their visual presentation of the terrorist attack in Nice
• Globe and Mail team for the visual depiction of the Fort McMurray fire

Project of the Year

• Sara Petrescu, Katie DeRosa and Louise Dickson, Victoria Times Colonist, for a five-day series on an overdose crisis
• Globe and Mail team for stories on soldiers and vets who died by suicide after serving in Afghanistan
• Kristy Kirkup and Sheryl Ubelacker, Canadian Press, for stories of indigenous Canadians terrorized by the emotional and physical impact of sexual abuse

Short Feature

• Lori Culbert, Vancouver Sun/The Province, for a story about a hiking family following a new path after a tragic accident
• Andrew Cohen, Ottawa Citizen/Ottawa Sun, for a story on the death of his cousin, iconic Canadian singer Leonard Cohen
• Hugo Pilon-Larose, La Presse, for a story on the sexual abuse of a young boy by film director Claude Jutra

Sports

• Mary Ormsby and Paul Hunter, Toronto Star, for a series on the dangers of boxing and its grim legacy
• Marty Klinkenberg, Globe and Mail, for a profile of the first indigenous player in the NHL
• Joe O'Connor, National Post, for stories on horse breeding, an ultra marathoner and hockey parents
• Randy Turner, Winnipeg Free Press, for a story on small-town arenas and what they mean to their communities

Sports Photo

• Lucas Oleniuk, Toronto Star, for a shot of personal triumph at the finish line of an Olympic track event
• Darryl Dyck, Canadian Press, for a photo showing the frantic hand action around a soccer ball
• Leah Hennel, Calgary Herald/Calgary Sun, for a picture of a rodeo rider being trampled into the mud

Nominated entries can be viewed at the NNA website at nna-ccj.ca
The link to the nominated entries can be found on the right side of the home page, just below the photo of the 2015 Journalist of the Year.

Our thanks to CNW Group for sponsoring this announcement.

SOURCE National Newspaper Awards

Raymond Brassard, Editorial Consultant, National Newspaper Awards, 514 261-1229, [email protected]