AMHERST, N.S. - The Amherst News has picked up a pair of nominations for Newspapers Atlantic’s 2018 Better Newspapers Competition.
The nominations are part of 26 by the SaltWire Network’s local Nova Scotia media outlets spanning from Amherst to Yarmouth.
“I am proud of the journalists in our news group,” Nova Scotia regional managing editor Dave Glenen said. “They are dedicated to their craft, their communities and the industry. Even now, more than ever, they are being called to step out and find the facts, no matter how popular, or unpopular, that might be. And they take up this challenge daily.”
The weekly newspaper has been nominated in the General Excellence Class 1 category. Also nominated are the Carbonear Compass, from Newfoundland and Labrador and the Pictou Advocate.
A cartoon that appeared on the front page of the March 31, 2017 edition of the Amherst News has been nominated in the Outstanding Cartoon category along with cartoons from the Eastern Graphic of Montague, P.E.I. and the Victoria Standard.
The cartoon, by Greg Perry, characterized the, sometimes, bitter rivalry between the Amherst CIBC Wood Gundy Ramblers and the Truro Bearcats. The two teams were set to renew their rivalry in the Eastlink South Division finals.
Truro won the series in five games en route to the MHL championships.
“The team in Amherst has experienced a lot of change in the last few years and have still worked hard to produce top-notch stories for both the paper, its sister paper The Citizen-Record and its website,” Glenen said. “I am really happy to see that work recognized Newspapers Atlantic and I’m not at all surprised by this year’s nomination.”
These are the first Newspapers Atlantic nominations for the Amherst News, which up until July 2013 was a daily newspaper. Last summer, its managing editor, Darrell Cole, was honoured by the organization with a Silver Quill Award for 25 years of service to the news media industry.
Along with the two nominations from Amherst, editorial teams with the Tri-County Vanguard, Annapolis Valley Register and Valley Journal-Advertiser collected 24 nominations.
The winners will be announced during an awards ceremony taking place at the University of King’s College in Halifax June 1.
The Valley Journal-Advertiser swept the nominations in the sports story category, with Windsor-based reporter Colin Chisholm receiving a nomination for his story on Kennetcook boxer Wyatt Sanford, who hopes to go to the Olympics someday and managing editor Jennifer Vardy Little, based in Kentville, receiving a nomination for her story on Port Williams skier Shane Sommer. Freelancer Matt Little was nominated for his article on Newport native Makail Parker’s season as captain of the Valley Wildcats.
Vardy Little is also nominated for Outstanding News Story for a feature about a Liverpool woman turning to the public for assistance finding a Kings County man who helped save her after a car crash.
Chisholm collected the most individual nominations in the competition, earning five nods in total. In addition to the sports story contest, Chisholm is a standing finalist for the outstanding news photo, resources story, feature story and editorial awards.
Tri-County Vanguard journalist Tina Comeau is a standing finalist in four categories: Outstanding Feature Photo, Outstanding News Photo, Outstanding Investigative Story and Outstanding Resources Story. The resources story was a personal reflection on the family side of the lobster industry and what, if anything, had changed from her experience the previous year.
Comeau's investigative story nomination is a series of stories exploring the issue of whether cancer radiation services should be located in southwestern Nova Scotia and also explored concerns over oral cancer medications and the cost to patients. Here are a sampling of those stories:
Tri-County colleagues Eric Bourque and Carla Allen are nominated for Outstanding Sports Photo and Outstanding News Story, respectively. Allen's news story nomination is for a series of articles she wrote about Baby Millie, a baby – and her parents – who have inspired many in the face of medical complications that have necessitated several open heart surgeries for this little girl. Millie is a Heart Warrior and is not only loved by those who know her, but by everyone.
Annapolis Valley Register reporter Ashley Thompson is a finalist in the Outstanding Feature Story category for a piece revisiting the mysterious disappearance of Lyndon Fuller, a 22-year-old man who seemingly vanished after jumping out of a third-storey window of the Berwick hospital in November 1988. Thompson is also nominated in the feature photo contest.Former Tri-County Vanguard reporter Sara Ericsson, now a part of the Kings County News team in Kentville, is in the running for the Outstanding Feature Photo award and Valley Journal-Advertiser journalist Carole Morris–Underhill received an Outstanding Sports Photo nomination.
Staff at the Valley Journal-Advertiser and Annapolis Valley Register are up for a number of group awards, including Outstanding Page Design, Outstanding Special Section and General Excellence.
The Tri-County Vanguard’s team is nominated for Outstanding Special Section for its annual Lobster Fishing Outlook, which this year was a 28-page publication exploring all aspects of the commercial lobster fishery. The Tri-County Vanguard also submitted work that has been nominated in the Outstanding Online Innovation category. This is a project that was undertaken by the staff of the Nova Scotia weeklies papers in western Nova Scotia that are part of Saltwire Network to create a summer bucket list for readers. It includes photos, descriptions and interactive maps.
