The best part of December and January is going through some of the best work done by the Citizen newsroom over the last year to submit entries for provincial and national journalism awards.
The Citizen boasts the largest newsroom in the province north of Kelowna and the newspaper has won every major provincial and national journalism award over the past 10 years - a Webster, a Canadian Association of Journalists award (and the Don McGillivray Award from the CAJ for investigative journalism), multiple Ma Murrays, and several CCNAs. Most notably, the Citizen won the Michener Award in 2007, Canada's highest honour for public service journalism presented annually by the Governor General to a single media outlet. The Citizen remains the smallest daily newspaper in Michener history to receive the award.
Please forgive the bragging but we're understandably proud of the work we do and the amazing staff that do it.
The following are the Citizen's nominees for the 2015 the Ma Murray Awards from the B.C. Yukon Community Newspapers Association, the 2015 Canadian Community Newspapers Association Awards and the 2015 National Newspaper Awards:
MA MURRAYS:
- Columnist Award - The kid who stands like a man (about Milan Halikowski) by Rodney Venis
- Editorial Award - Matters deserved better (commentary on the results of the coroner's inquest into the death of Greg Matters) by Neil Godbout
- Feature Series Award - Touch too much (about baby Shea Fell) by Peter James and Love for Shea by Christine Hinzmann
Sports Writing Award - Peewee player stands alone (about Matt Marotta) - Andrea Johnson, Ted Clarke, Jason Peters (column) and Neil Godbout (two editorials)
Feature Photo Award - Look Ma, no skis by Brent Braaten
Portrait Photo Award - Touch too much by Brent Braaten
Online Innovation Award - Art a catalyst for change (feature on artist Jane Inyallie) by Christine Hinzmann
Community Service Award - Your Vote Matters (The Citizen's campaign to increase voter turnout for the November municipal election) - Charelle Evelyn, Neil Godbout
CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION AWARDS:
Best News Story - X,Y and Z (Legebokoff testifies at his murder trial) by Mark Nielsen
Best Feature Story - Touch too much by Peter James
Columnist - The kid who stands like a man by Rodney Venis
National Editorial - What would Jesus do? (about Trinity Western University's student conduct clause) by Neil Godbout
Local editorial - Sketching a killer by Corey Hardeman (Corey was The Citizen's courtroom sketch artist during the Cody Legebokoff trial)
Headline writing - En garde for thee by Rodney Venis
News feature photo - Touch too much by Brent Braaten
Feature photo - Look Ma, no skis by Brent Braaten
Best multimedia feature - Art a catalyst for change by Christine Hinzmann
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER AWARDS:
Short Feature Award - Sketching a killer by Corey Hardeman
News Feature Photo Award - Touch too much by Brent Braaten
Feature Photo Award - Look Ma, no skis by Brent Braaten
Local Reporting Award - Cody Legebokoff murder trial by Mark Nielsen
Editorial Award - Matters deserved better by Neil Godbout
Columnist Award - The kid who stands like a man by Rodney Venis
