The Surrey Now-Leader was a double winner at the annual Ma Murray Awards on Saturday night.
The awards are presented by the British Columbia & Yukon Community NewsMedia Association to recognize the best work produced by its more than 90 member newspapers each year. The 2024 awards, recognizing the top work published in 2023, were held at the Polygon Gallery in North Vancouver on April 20.
Black Press Media’s Surrey bureau captured seven awards, with two of those to the Surrey Now-Leader.
The Now-Leader earned bronze for Newspaper Excellence in its circulation category, behind the Nanaimo News Bulletin and North Shore News.
The Now-Leader also captured bronze for Special Publications for its 2023 economic development magazine, Surrey: An Economic Powerhouse (produced by Dal Hothi, Dwayne Weidendorf and Beau Simpson).
The Now-Leader’s sister paper, the North Delta Reporter, earned silver in Newspaper Excellence in its circulation category.
Also earning multiple awards was White Rock-South Surrey’s Peace Arch News, which earned a silver for Newspaper Excellence in its circulation category, just behind the Chilliwack Progress and ahead of the Comox Valley Record.
Reporter Tricia Weel was a double winner. She earned a gold in the John Collison Memorial Award for Investigative Journalism for a story examining transportation challenges facing wheelchair users, Wheelchair users ‘robbed of special moments.’
Weel also earned bronze in the Neville Shanks Memorial Award for Historical Writing for her piece A frontline hero, chronicling the story of her maternal great-grandfather, Arthur Wigglesworth, who was killed in action near Vimy, France during the First World War.
Former editor Brenda Anderson captured gold for editorial writing with her piece Bureaucracy run amok.
