Northern Life / Sudbury.com came home from the Ontario Community Newspaper Association's annual awards gala this month with four new plaques to hang on the wall.
The editorial we published on Aug. 10, 2017, earned the title of best editorial for the year. In that editorial, Northern Life reflected on the case of Dr. Nicole Desmarais, the Sudbury physician who was forced to give up custody of her adopted son to the province so he could get the intensive psychological treatment he needs.
You can read that editorial here.
Northern Life placed second in the General Excellence category (circulation 22,500-44,999) for the newspaper itself. Judges praised the paper's overall design, the mix of news, opinion, entertainment and sports that make community newspapers "the lifeblood of their communities."
In the Best Front Page (circ. over 10,000), the cover of the Nov. 3, 2016, edition of Northern Life earned second place for best front page with the judge praising the clean look of the page.
And finally, Northern Life / Sudbury.com earned third place in the Multimedia Online/Best Online Experience for a Story category for the Nov. 11, 2016 story we brought you about the life of Sudbury resident Ilja Buz, who was a reluctant Russian soldier in the Second World War. That story was a tag team effort between reporter Heidi Ulrichsen and videographer Heather Green-Oliver.
The experience we provided combined a written feature story on Mr. Buz, as well as an accompanying video of him describing his war-time experiences. It was a powerful and moving story, remembered with clarity and delivered with candor by a 96-year-old war veteran.
