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Global Winnipeg wins international award for online coverage

Global Winnipeg has earned top honours for its online coverage of a story that captivated the city last year.

The Radio Television and Digital News Association announced Thursday it will present Global Winnipeg with its prestigious Edward R. Murrow award for best online video breaking news coverage, of a major fire and explosion at an industrial plant in St. Boniface.

Global Winnipeg won in the international category, beating out all others from outside the United States.

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The fire and explosion at Speedway International on October 1st, 2012 sent an enormous fireball into the sky. No one was hurt but the bio-fuel facility was destroyed.

The fire broke out shortly before Global’s 6 pm newscast, forcing a quick scramble to get coverage both on the air and on our website. Global’s helicopter, Skyview1 and our High Definition camera zooming in from the rooftop at Portage and Main provided the best views of what was unfolding: the images were streamed live on the internet to make sure that coverage didn’t end when the newscast did at 6:30. And our journalists updated information, including road closures and evacuations, on social media, on a live blog and during the live streamed coverage.

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“We were updating the story online before, during and after the broadcast had ended. It was a 24/7 news cycle on this particular story,” says George Browne, managing editor of globalnews.ca. “Our online reporter was in the helicopter, live tweeting the latest news while answering viewer questions who were obviously very concerned.

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