Peace Arch News has been named the top community newspaper of its size for the second year in a row by the B.C. & Yukon Community Newspapers Association.
The Ma Murray Awards – announced Saturday at an industry gala at River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond – also rewarded Black Press regional reporter Jeff Nagel with the John Collison Memorial Award for Investigative Journalism for his series, Justice Denied, published in Peace Arch News last spring.
General-excellence judges had this to say about PAN:
“With an attractive front page, clean op-ed pages with excellent layout and strong photography throughout, the Peace Arch News is a very attractive product. Sharp headlines, lots of local and relevant news, and good variety of coverage in local stories, arts and sports. High quality production and ad design. An all-round great paper!”
Two other Surrey-area newspapers also received accolades – Surrey/North Delta Leader received the silver award for general excellence in its circulation category and gold for ‘special publications’ for Surrey in Focus: The Face of Immigration, and Surrey Now won gold for ‘special section’ for its Possabilities publication.
Next up are the Canadian Community Newspaper Awards in Toronto April 26, where Peace Arch News, Surrey Leader and Mountain News (Hamilton, Ont.) are the top three finalists for general excellence among large-circulation community newspapers across the country.