Town Crier wins big at awards
Staff takes home top prize in every category in which they were a finalist at the Ontario Community Newspapers Association Better Newspaper Contest
The team behind the Town Crier turned in a fantastic showing at the 2012 Ontario Community Newspapers Association’s Better Newspapers Contest, winning every category in which we were finalists.
Leading the pack was Omar Mosleh who won both first and second place in the Best News Story for large newspapers category.
Mosleh’s winning article “For rich or for poor[/url]”, juxtaposed a claim of a high end realtor that there weren’t enough million dollar homes in Toronto with the fact there isn’t enough affordable housing in the city.
Judge Ian Jacques[/url] was quite impressed with Mosleh’s work noting that Mosleh “had several top notch stories in this category”.
“This one stands-out for its in-depth look at this issue, strong layout and a great read from start to finish.”
The second place story of Mosleh’s “Casa to become casino?” looked at a proposal to turn the historic landmark into a gambling den.
Here Jacques not only commented on Mosleh’s writing but also the design work of Town Crier Editorial Art Director Shadi Raoufi.
“Well researched and the layout and front page graphics really drew the reader in,” Jacques wrote in his judge’s comments. “So extra kudos for that.”
Shawn Star’s story “Beyond rote learning”, which looked at new and innovated ways to teach math, took home top prize in the Education Writing category.
“The writing is crisp and brings the reader into the classroom in the first sentence,” wrote category judge Chris Foulds[/url]. “Shawn Star takes a subject often dismissed as dull — math — and makes it interesting in humanizing fascinating learning techniques.”
Former city councillor Sandra Bussin was named Columnist of the Year for her “The View from The Beach” column in the Beach-Riverdale-East York Town Crier which largely focuses on Beach-related municipal politics.
Bussin’s three nominated columns looked at the first year of Rob Ford’s mayoralty, the true cost of service cuts and the lack of civility at city hall.
“These articles show strong knowledge and history with the subject matter,” wrote judge Sheena Read[/url]. “I learned a lot about a topic we’re only getting sound bytes on here in western Canada.”
The Town Crier’s website was awarded first place and Toronto Today’s site came second in the member chosen Surfer’s Selection category. This category has been won by one of our websites for the last five years.
Congratulations to all the reporters, photographers, designers and editors for all their hard work and passion. Once again your efforts have been recognized as being among the best in all of Ontario.
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