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| 1 - Clarenville (NL) Packet |
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| 2 - Bridgewater (NS) Bulletin |
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| 3 - Alliston (ON) Herald |
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Judge's Comments
Sixteen newspapers entered in this category, and it was an inspiration to see newspaper owners putting their hearts ahead of the bottom line.
Many of the submissions were similar: Christmas toy drives, charity fund-raisers and food bank drives backed by the newspaper. These were all valuable projects, some of them involving significant volunteer effort from the papers' owners and staff, but not really beyond the normal community service mission of the newspaper.
Several other entries were human interest features which sparked a strong community response. Those reporters and photographers did a great job of telling compelling stories, but their submissions were not community projects led by the newspaper.
The winners are all unique projects of real importance to their communities which involved a significant investment of the newspapers' resources.
First place clearly belongs to the Clarenville (NL) Packet, a newspaper which put a heroic, two-year effort into producing a book of local history and preserving, cataloguing and printing a private collection of historic photo negatives. The Packet nurtured the project by publishing a series of historical columns by Bob Hyslop, and then assisted him in expanding those columns into a 178-page book illustrated with hundreds of photos.
Second place goes to the Bridgewater (NS) Bulletin, for developing a youth web site, www.teenstogether.ca. The paper’s parent company, Lighthouse Publishing, hired local youth and provided them with work space, a web site designer and support staff, plus jazzy house advertisements and editorial support to publicize the web site.
Third place belongs to the Alliston (ON) Herald for its extraordinary effort in commemorating the local hospital’s 75th anniversary.
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