And the winners are?

Friday evening  I stood on the second floor of Delta Winnipeg lobby with my bags at my feet, and the taxi that would take me to the airport waiting just beyond the front door. As I watched the National Newspaper Award nominees arriving for their gala, dressed to the nines, their spirits bright and tightly wound, I felt a little like Moses watching his compatriots cross the valley into the promised land. Not that we've had to endure any plagues this past week during the convention — from what I've read the locust don't hit Winnipeg until June.
No, it's just that for the past several days it's been all about the business of newspapering — readership and circultation and innovation; moving online and finding the "jobs" our readers need done for them. Not a word, really, about the quality of the writing, the picture making, the digging.
Hell, my online hero Rob Curley even suggested we make sure to drop "writer" from our staff titles and replace it with "reporter", a not-so-subtle way of reminding everybody that their jobs, their roles, have changed.
I can't argue the last bit — in my newsroom they hand out earplugs to the unfortunates sitting near me so they don't have to endure my endless repetition of that mantra.
But as someone who chose this career as a teenager precisely because it meant writing for a living, I'd argue long and loud for the necessity of  recognizing and celebrating great writing (and photography). Happily, I don't have to — we have the National Newspaper Awards. Founded in 1949 by the Toronto Press Club, they're now housed in the CNA offices and administered by an independent board of governors (since 1989).   Here is a list of  the winners. Oh, and don't forget the Edward Goff Penny awards for  promising young journalists. Although they were announced in March, both winners — Elisabeth Johns, a reporter with the Cornwall Standard-Freeholder, and the Ottawa Citizen's Katie Lewis — were presented at last night's gala. (That's Elisabeth with CNA president Anne Kothawala at the gala.)
(As an aside - am I the only one who thinks we all cheapen the awards by only publishing details of our own paper's winners, rather than offering readers the whole list and maybe reprinting an award winning photo or two? It turns it form a celebration of the best of our work into something of a jingoistic excercise...)
Bill
(Photos courtesy David Gollob)
ps: check back Sunday - I'll be posting some more on what we learned in the seminars about video and the newspaper.

Comments

[Len Kubas]

Bravo Zulu! to Bill Dunphy, Roger Gillespie, Jim Poling and Kelly Montague for your great insights.

As a former carrier of The Winnipeg Free Press and The Winnipeg Tribune, your stories about the hospitality and sense of humour of Winnipeg residents ("Winnipegers?") made up for the fact that I (most reluctantly) was not able to attend in person.

Your reports (blogs, commentary and videos, etc.) were terrific. I especially regret not being in the audience cheering on Bryan Cantley for his great service to our industry.

Your blogs show that newspapers do have a bright future -- provided we can engage our customers (readers and advertisers) with the same enthusiasm, wit and intelligence that your team demonstrated these past few days.

Great Work -- Conventional Wisdom team.

Len Kubas