The St. Albert Gazette and its journalists, editors, and production staff won big at the 2021 Alberta Weekly Newspapers Association (AWNA) Better Newspapers Competition Awards of Excellence on Friday, June 3.
Out of The Gazette's total of seven awards, five were for first place.
"It feels good to win awards," said Duff Jamison, CEO of Great West Media, the company that owns the St. Albert Gazette. "Anyone who wins awards feels good about that.
"For me personally, I feel good for the people who are responsible for winning those awards and we have a good group of journalists in our newsroom, and they work diligently at their craft," Jamison said.
Scott Hayes, who has been with The Gazette since 2006, topped the podium for the Healthy Communities Journalism Award for his story: "Paging Dr. Roy to the inventor's lab."
Hayes's article covered the Paul Kane grad and ICU doctor Steven Roy, who invented a device that allows a hospital to use a ventilator on up to four patients at the same time instead of just one.
Another first-place finish for The Gazette was for a multi-photo layout. Reporters Kevin Ma and Anna Borowiecki, and former Gazette editor April Hudson, won the award for their photos of the Citadel Mews Fire last spring and the corresponding layout in that week's paper.
The three remaining first-place finishes for The Gazette were in the general excellence category. The Gazette was selected for best front page, best editorial page, and best overall score in the AWNA Class D section. The Class D section includes newspapers with a circulation above 10,000.
The Gazette won third for best sports section in the general excellence category, and third for best local editorial for "It's our right to seek accountability."
"The best all-around awards reflect a commitment to journalism all year round," Jamison said. "We don’t know before our competition which weeks of the year are going to be chosen by the judges for us to enter with."
For the AWNA awards competition each year, the judges randomly select two editions from each competing news outlet.
"The only way that you can win a best all-around award is to be best all year around," said Jamison.
“It’s something that I’m quite proud of our group for, and I think everybody that works in Great West understands that we want to be our best and it shows.”
Indeed, many other newspapers owned by Great West Media won awards this year.
LakeLand This Week received first-place honours for best feature column by a local writer for reporter Rob McKinley's "It's pretty real when you have it," and in the best sports writing category for reporter Janice Huser's "St. Paul Canadiens re-establishing unique affiliation with Montreal Canadiens."
Second-place finishes for LakeLand This Week included best habitat conservation story, and pandemic writing. LakeLand also won third place for best agriculture section and spot news photo.
Former Rocky Mountain Outlook photojournalist Evan Buhler racked up seven top-three finishes across five photography award categories, including four first-place finishes.
Great West Media's newspapers won first place in every category in the Class C category for the general excellence awards. The Rocky Mountain Outlook won best overall score, best front page, best sports section, and third for best editorial page. LakeLand This Week won best editorial page.
"We’re in this business because we want to do well at community journalism and the awards that we just won reflect that we’re having some success doing that, not just in St. Albert, but throughout our company," Jamison said.
“The culture in our organization, Great West Media, I think is largely a result of our leadership in our company being all journalists themselves," he said, adding, "We know the business that we’re in."
