Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Apr 22/02) - News/North and Kivalliq News led the pack at recent national newspaper competitions this month.

"Comprehensive coverage of news events in a large geographical area of Canada the Northwest Territories and Nunavut." That's how judges for the Ontario Community Newspaper Awards described News/North after awarding the newspaper top honours in the General Excellence category of the Better Newspaper Competition.

"The writing is tight, bright and compelling. Stories are well supported with photographs, maps and graphs."

News/North also won the first-place award in the Online Edition competition. "This site is very aware of its audience," said the judges, applauding webmaster Art Sorensen for the Web page's "clean design" and "emphasis on information."

A story on the NWT Development Corp headlined "Job machine or sinkhole," written by Jack Danylchuk, won first in the Best Business Finance story.

Danylchuk asked tough questions, the judges said. "Sources go on record stating the corporation has lost its focus and, consequently, taxpayers dollars are being wasted."

Opportunities North, News/North's annual business publication, won third place in the Special Section category. "Chock full of business and investment information," said the judges.

Kivalliq News editor Darrell Greer won second place for editorial writing at the Manitoba Community Newspapers Association awards in Winnipeg. "How to take the fun out of sports," focused on the overtime pay going to Sports Nunavut employees when so many parents and others volunteered their free time doing much the same thing for their local sports teams.

Kivalliq News also won second for best classified section and third for best typography.

At the Western Canadian News Photographers Association (WCNPA) held in Edmonton, staff photographer Robert Dall won third place in the pictorial category for the Pictures of the Year and made it into the finals of the feature picture category.

Judges for the conference were from Sports Illustrated, New York Daily News, USA Today and the Spokesman Review.