2021 Premier Awards - Best Local Civic Journalism ( Circulation up to 1499,Circulation 1500 to 3999,Circulation 4000 to 6499,Circulation 6500 to 9999)
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Place Name:
First Place
Contestant Name:
Rocky Mountain Outlook (Canmore/Kananaskis/BanffAB
Entry Title:
Rocky Mountain Outlook – Buried in the Aftermath – Best Local Civic Journalism
Entry Credit:
Tanya Foubert, Greg Colgan, Evan Buhler
Judge Comment:
This excellent series is a unique take on civic journalism - something that matters to a particular community. Full of excellent storytelling and analysis, this takes a subject central to living in the mountain parks - the risks of adventure travel - and highlights an important governance issue for the group representing accredited mountain guides. Well done.
Place Name:
Second Place
Contestant Name:
Manitoulin Expositor (Manitoulin Island, ON)
Entry Title:
Out of the Shadows
Entry Credit:
Warren Schlote
Judge Comment:
The opioid crisis is a global, national, provincial and local crisis. This amazing work makes it local, bringing general and regional information in as needed but keeping the focus of the impact of the crisis relentlessly local. Amazing and obviously painstaking work.
The only real drawback is presentation of the material - breaking the chapters up as separate articles would make for a better reading experience.
Place Name:
Third Place
Contestant Name:
Tofino-Ucluelet Westerly News (Tofino/Ucluelet, BC
Entry Title:
Municipal And Regional District Tax
Entry Credit:
Andrew Bailey
Judge Comment:
Civic journalism at its best takes the mundane and makes it interesting. It's harder to think of a less inspiring subject than sewage, but the writer here involves and informs the reader in exactly the right way. Great job!
Competition Comment:
Civic journalism can vary widely by what is most critical to a community's interest. The winning entries reflect this diversity in subject matter, from accreditation of mountain guides to the opioid crisis to sewage systems. What they all share, and what made the top 5 entries stand out from the rest of the pack, was depth of coverage and the willingness to make these often complex stories more accessible to the reader - and just as importantly, to highlight why the subject matter means to the reader as a community member.
