General Excellence – Best All-Round Newspaper ( Circulation 1500 to 3999,Circulation 4000 to 6499)
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Place Name:
First Place
Contestant Name:
Stratford Times (Stratford, ON)
Entry Title:
General Excellence - Stratford Times
Entry Credit:
Sarah Cairns, Stewart Grant, Galen Simmons
Judge Comment:
While the Stratford Times does all the usual things you’d expect from a local newspaper — covering a broad range of news and feature stories — it excels at involving the community in co-creating the paper.
The publication’s guiding principles, displayed prominently on its op-ed page, declares that “A Newspaper should be a community effort (contribute to your local paper!)”
In that respect, the Times’ success is demonstrated by the reams of feature stories written by local contributors and pages of high school track meet photos submitted by the students’ coach and others.
The collaborative approach is sure to build readers’ trust in these Times.
This newspaper is a platform not only for informing residents but, at its core, a vehicle for building community. Bravo!
Place Name:
Second Place
Contestant Name:
The Low Down To Hull & Back News (Wakefield, QC)
Entry Title:
General Excellence - Low Down
Entry Credit:
Trevor Greenway, Nikki Mantell, Madeline Kerr
Judge Comment:
A clever, cheeky in places, newspaper that’s both seriously informative and fun to read.
A front page that — with its smart headlines, lively writing and dynamic design elements — immediately draws you in.
If I lived in your region, I’d be looking forward to the release of each new issue.
Congratulations on producing a terrific paper!
Place Name:
Third Place
Contestant Name:
Gulf Islands Driftwood (Salt Spring Island, BC)
Entry Title:
Gulf Islands Driftwood
Judge Comment:
The Gulf Islands Driftwood does a terrific job of serving its community through the breadth of its coverage that includes hard news and institutional stories; features; arts/entertainment; sports; and an engaging editorial section.
And despite having few colour pages available to them, editors skillfully use a variety of design elements to also make the publication a clean and visually appealing newspaper.
Nicely done! Keep up the great work!
Competition Comment:
These entries were solid reflections of, and contributions to, their communities. So, it wasn’t easy to pick my top three!
But the Stratford Times newspaper stood out from the stack thanks to the sheer number of local stories, names and faces that appeared in its thick editions. While many of the entries did a great job of including contributions from their communities — such as reader-submitted photos and student-written school roundups — the Times excelled in its outreach.
Many entries looked terrific due to their uncluttered page design. The Low Down to Hull & Back News, and the Gulf Islands Driftwood exercised the judicious use of font styles; pull quotes; white space; greyed backgrounds; rules/lines; photos/images; and advertising that didn’t poke into editorial content.
The writing in most entries was clear. But many stories would have benefitted from crisper ledes; sharper word choices; and a few clever turns of phrase. Several entries, including some that didn’t place among my top three picks, featured smart writing that easily drew me into their stories.
It’s great to see so many skilled news teams doing their communities proud!
