2020 General Excellence ( Circulation 6500 to 9999,Circulation 10000 to 12499,Circulation 12500 to 17499)
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Place Name:
First Place
Contestant Name:
Pique News Magazine (Whistler & Pemberton, BC)
Entry Title:
Pique Newsmagazine
Entry Credit:
Pique Newsmagazine staff
Judge Comment:
Pique Newsmagazine definitely looks more like a magazine than a newspaper, but readers aren’t missing anything except for a traditional-style editorial. The whole package is beautiful to look at and full of well-written, compelling stories and columns on a wide range of issues.
Place Name:
Second Place
Contestant Name:
Rocky Mountain Outlook (Canmore/Kananaskis/BanffAB
Entry Title:
Rocky Mountain Outlook – May 7 and Aug. 6, 2020 – General Excellence
Judge Comment:
The Rocky Mountain Outlook benefits from having what few papers in this category could boast: A staffperson — Evan Buhler — with obvious talents in photojournalism. The Outlook’s front-page photos and clean look gave it top marks in that area. Otherwise, the range of coverage and writing is also notably strong.
Place Name:
Third Place
Contestant Name:
The Chief (Squamish, BC)
Entry Title:
The Squamish Chief
Entry Credit:
Squamish Chief staff
Judge Comment:
The Squamish Chief does everything well – from its cover design to editorial page to in-depth news feature writing. A nicely-designed back to school section with contributions from a youth writer is an example of extra coverage provided. More advertising support for such a section would no doubt have been appreciated, but 2020 was of course an especially challenging time for sales.
Competition Comment:
The year 2020 was a challenging one for all community newspapers due to the loss of advertising revenue, a reduction in public activities and the need to heed public health restrictions. All papers in this broad circulation category did remarkably well in keeping their communities informed through both editorial and advertising content.
Some papers were quite visually appealing but light on actual content. Others were not so pretty but clearly had their pulse on what was happening in their coverage area. The top three winners in the D, E and F circulation categories managed to look good and also provide readers with lots of interesting stories to read.
A general note about photography: With submitted photos so easy to acquire and use, and especially when pandemic obstacles limited the ability to get out and shoot photos in 2020, most publications lost the value that comes from having a primary staff photographer. The Rocky Mountain Outlook and the Observer (Elmira-Woolwich) were the two exceptions where in-house photography shone. The Alberni Valley News’ Day in the Life sections were also great.
The Outlook’s front-page photos were the main reason for its earning of top spot in the front-page competition. Second-place front-page winner was the Parksville Qualicum Beach News. Squamish Chief was third.
The Delta Optimist took first place for its editorial page, followed by the Squamish Chief and Rocky Mountain Outlook.
Honourable mention awards go to The Highlander and Delta Optimist.
