NORTHWEST TERRITORIES

NWT News/North, and South Slave bureau chief Paul Bickford in particular, enjoyed another year of considerable acclaim at the Saskatchewan Weekly Newspaper Association's 2011 Better Newspapers Competition in Regina earlier this month.

The newspaper earned second place for Best Overall Paper in its class and another second place for Best Editorial Page.

Bickford took home second place in the Best Feature Photo category for his entry, which depicted a very animated Hay River student, John McCormick, posing next to his equally expressive painting.

"Paul Bickford's photo once again used the tight and bright photo method, and while his photograph had a great range of emotion, its slight downfall was its lack of spontaneity," the judge remarked.

One of Bickford's other photos also impressed the judge in the Best People photo category, where he finished in third place.

"Awesome photo depicting warmth and caring," the judge wrote about the image, which shows a smiling Tullulah Patterson tending to a couple of dogs, one of them barking vigorously, prior to a dog-team raced at K'amba Carnival.

Also among the photography divisions, a picture Bickford snapped of a fox alongside Highway 5, captured a judge's eye, earning him third place.

"There is a very personal feel to this image which does well in demonstrating the coming together of man and nature," the judge wrote. "It's hard for the reader not to be drawn in by the subject."

A feature story on bats hibernating in karst caves of the South Slave region, written by Bickford, was selected as the top of its class for Best Habitat Conservation Writing.

Degrees of Success, an annual report on school programs and academic achievement in the NWT and Nunavut, was deemed the best entry in the Best Post Secondary Story category. The judge described it as a "well written and well illustrated" series of stories with articles that varied nicely by topic and in length.

Degrees of Success also earned third place for Best Overall Coverage of K-12 education.