The Parksville Qualicum Beach News took home a silver medal for overall excellence from the Ma Murray Community Newspaper Awards on Saturday night in Richmond.
In the last five years, The NEWS has won two gold and three silver awards in the general excellence category. This year, The NEWS was edged for the gold (two percentage points) by The New Westminster Record.
"We strive every day to produce the best product we can for our readers and advertisers," said The NEWS publisher Peter McCully. "It's a credit to the entire team at The NEWS that our industry peers recognize the good work of our staff."
Said editor John Harding: "There are many great newspapers in this province providing excellent service to their communities. We are humbled by our success at the Ma Murray awards and we thank our readers for keeping us on our toes and pushing us to produce good reads every week."
The B.C.-Yukon Community Newspaper Association has 119 member papers. This is what the judges said about The NEWS:
"The Parksville Qualicum Beach News was great on local news and features. Excellent use of colour, photos and headlines on the front page. Good sports sections and overall community coverage."
NEWS reporter Candace Wu was also honoured Saturday night, taking home a bronze in the Environmental Initiative category for her story about derelict boats in Deep Bay. Said the judges about Wu's story: "Candace Wu's investigation of derelict vessels clogging Deep Bay harbour led to the removal of at least one boat and thousands of litres of oil from another. Derelict vessels threaten the environment as well as the local shellfish industry, but pressure from news stories like these might just lead to a solution to the problem."