THE BATTLEFORDS — The Battlefords Regional News-Optimist has netted three national newspaper award wins from the Canadian Community Newspaper Awards as of Sept. 15. Winners were announced online, with Lisa Joy winning two and Miguel Fenrich winning one.
Lisa Joy's feature on David Milgaard's wrongful conviction netted her two awards — third place in the Best Feature Story and second place in Best Multimedia Feature.
"It's clear that a huge amount of work went into researching and writing this multi-faceted in-depth piece about David Milgaard's treatment by the criminal justice system and Saskatchewan government," reads a judge's comment about Joy's piece.
Miguel Fenrich's stories about Twin Flames visiting the Dekker Centre, Floyd Favel's novel about the Delmas Residental school and coverage of local Sask. artists at the Chapel Gallery landed him one award — third-place for Best Arts Coverage.
"There are a lot of fascinating arts and culture stories being written across the country, and the quality of the entries was very high. What set the winners apart was their ability to not only report on the arts in the community but to tell a bigger story," the judge wrote about all three winners in the category.
"What is impressive about this newspaper [News-Optimist] is their ability to dig deep into an arts story as well as providing ongoing coverage of the community," the judge noted about Fenrich's coverage.
The CCNA notes on their website that the 2023 competition included 798 entries in 27 unique categories, recognizing outstanding editorial, photography, multimedia and overall excellence in community newspaper publishing from 2022.
