The Tri-City News is a finalist for nine awards in a province-wide newspaper competition.
The Ma Murray Community News Media Awards are hosted annually by the BC and Yukon Community Newspaper Association and recognize the achievements of the association’s 95 member newspapers.
The Tri-City News is one of three finalists in the Newspaper Excellence competition — i.e., best overall paper — for its circulation category. The other two are the Burnaby Now, a Glacier Media sister publication, and the Langley Advance Times.
That recognition comes after a year in which The Tri-City News changed its print publication schedule to once per week, redesigned the newspaper, added reporting and sales staff, and doubled its online audience.
In addition to the general excellence honour, members of The Tri-City News team are finalists for a number of individual awards as follows:
• Editor Richard Dal Monte in the Black Family Editorial category for his September 2019 editorial calling for Port Moody Mayor Rob Vagramov to step aside until his sexual assault case was resolved. The other finalists in this category are Andrea Rondeau of the Cowichan Valley Citizen and Ashley Joannou of the Yukon News.
• Reporter Gary McKenna in the Business Writing category for his feature outlining the effects of property tax hikes on businesses in Coquitlam's Austin Heights neighbourhood. The other finalists are both from Glacier Media newspapers: Sandor Gyarmati of the Delta Optimist and John Kurucz of the Vancouver Courier.
• In the Photo Essay category, Tri-City News journalists are two of the three finalists: Mario Bartel for his photo feature on last July's PoCo Grand Prix bike race and Stefan Labbé for his picture page on a performance by Circo Osorio, a travelling Mexican circus, in Coquitlam. The other finalist is Jenna Hauck of the Chilliwack Progress.
• Bartel and Labbé are also finalists — together this time — in the KPU Multimedia Feature Story category for their interactive December feature titled 2019: The Year in Pictures. The other finalists are also from Glacier Media publications: Brandon Barrett and team of Pique Newsmagazine in Whistler; and Michael Kissinger and Dan Toulgoet of the Vancouver Courier.
• Former publisher Shannon Mitchell (she left the paper last week to manage a Glacier Media digital news organization in Kamloops) in the Special Publications category for The Tri-City News A-List magazine. The other finalists are Julie Hamilton and Amanda Stutt of Glacier's North Shore News and Cheryl Ariken and Lisa Craik of the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows News.
• Former Tri-City News production manager Matt Blair, who's now publisher of Glacier's Delta Optimist, has two nominations: one in the Ad Campaign category, the other in Ad Design. Other finalists in the former are: Tannis Hendriks of the North Shore News as well as Kelly Pownall and Birgit Brunner of the North Shore News; in the latter: the North Shore News' Hendriks and Jackie Brittain of the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows News.
Glacier Media publications earned 56 Ma Murray nominations, or 43% of total nominations with just a quarter of the nominated publications.
The 2020 Ma Murray Community News Media Awards will be handed out April 25 at a banquet at the River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond.
