Globe has 24 finalists, Toronto Star 9 on National Newspaper Awards shortlist

TORONTO – The Globe and Mail is leading the chase for the 2011 National Newspaper Awards with 24 entries on the list of finalists, followed by the Toronto Star with nine.

The Waterloo Region Record picked up five nominations, followed by Montreal’s La Presse with four and the Winnipeg Free Press with three.

The Canadian Press, the Edmonton Journal, the Halifax Chronicle-Herald, the London Free Press, Postmedia News and Reuters earned two each.

Single nominations went to: Getty Images, the Hamilton Spectator, the Kingston Whig-Standard, Le Journal de Montréal, Le Journal de Québec, the Montreal Gazette, the National Post, the Orillia Packet and Times, the Ottawa Citizen, the Sarnia Observer, the St. John’s Telegram, the Sudbury Star, the Toronto Sun and the Vancouver Province.

The 71 finalists in 22 categories were announced today from the National Newspaper Awards office in Toronto.

The winners will be honoured April 27 at a gala awards ceremony in Toronto.

There were 1,350 entries in this year’s competition for works that appeared in the year 2011. In all, 25 news organizations were nominated.

This is the 23rd year for the NNAs under a Board of Governors which includes editors, publishers and the public from across Canada, as well as representatives from the Toronto Press Club, which founded the awards in 1949.

The complete list of nominees:

– Multimedia Feature: The Halifax Chronicle-Herald for a multimedia study of racism in Nova Scotia; The Globe and Mail for an examination of the Palestinian militant group Hamas; the Toronto Star for a revelation of the ongoing despair and famine in Somalia.

– News Feature Photography: John Lehmann, The Globe and Mail, for a photo of a 13-person canoe about to leave on an expedition visiting remote native villages between Tofino and Port Alberni; Tara Walton, Toronto Star, for a photo of an elderly Alzheimer’s patient who had been sexually assaulted; Chris Wattie, Reuters, for a photo of Jack Layton’s casket in the foreground of a sea of faces.

– Beat Reporting: Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press, for his public security beat; Susan Pigg, Toronto Star, for stories on aging. Mary Agnes Welch, Winnipeg Free Press, for her public policy beat.

– Explanatory Work: Carolyn Abraham of The Globe and Mail on the facts and mythology of sperm count research; Grant Robertson of The Globe and Mail for the story behind Canada’s currency overhaul; Mary Ormsby of the Toronto Star on the mechanics and spiritual dimensions of figure skating.

– Politics: Don Butler of the Ottawa Citizen for stories of how Canada grants asylum to refugees; Daniel Leblanc of The Globe and Mail for coverage of corruption and political collusion in the Quebec construction industry; Sheila Pratt of the Edmonton Journal for an investigation of the climate of fear and intimidation in Alberta’s public life.

– Short Features: Daniel Dale, Toronto Star, for a story of guilt associated with seeing a toonie that someone had dropped on a subway car floor; Kate Hammer of The Globe and Mail for story of a kindergarten class in a B.C. seniors’ home; Mike Strobel, Toronto Sun, for story of disabled youth at a swimming meet.

– Local Reporting: Shawn Jeffords of the Sarnia Observer for stories of prescription pill abuse in the community; Sara Ross, Nathan Taylor and Teviah Moro of the Orillia Packet and Times for coverage of cronyism and lack of transparency in the hiring of a city manager; Paul Schliesmann of the Kingston Whig-Standard for an examination of recycling practices in the region; Mike Whitehouse of the Sudbury Star for stories of a sex scandal and the squandering of taxpayers’ money.

– Presentation: The team of Catherine Farley, Brian Hughes, Noor Javed, Joe Rubin, Nuri Ducassi, Toronto Star; Rachel Hotte, Jacques-Olivier Bras, La Presse, Montréal; Jocelyn Potelle, La Presse, Montréal

– Special Project: The Gazette of Montreal for a series on Quebec’s cult of government and institutional secrecy; National Post for a project on Canada’s decade-long war in Afghanistan; The Province of Vancouver for project on elder abuse; Waterloo Region Record for a multi-faceted study of public transportation in the region.

– Sports Photography: Mark Blinch, Reuters, for a photo of a U.S. hurdles runner falling during the handoff of the baton; Benoît Gariépy of Le Journal de Québec for a photo of a disconsolate hockey player at the famed Quebec Peewee Tournament; Derek Ruttan of the London Free Press for a hurdles runner outdistancing his opponents at a high school meet.

– Business: Sheldon Alberts of Postmedia News for stories of the Keystone XL Pipeline controversy; Chuck Howitt of the Waterloo Region Record on the demutualization of an insurance company; Andy Hoffman and Mark MacKinnon of The Globe and Mail for a series on Sino-Forest Corp.; and Barrie McKenna, The Globe and Mail, for an examination of the federal government’s research and development tax program.

– Columns: Susan Clairmont, Hamilton Spectator; Barrie McKenna, The Globe and Mail; Eric Reguly, The Globe and Mail.

– Investigations: Daniel Leblanc of The Globe and Mail for corruption at the Canada Revenue Agency offices in Montreal; Mike de Souza of Postmedia News for an investigation into partisan research carried out at a university to lobby against the Kyoto Protocol and peer-reviewed science on climate change; Moira Welsh and Jesse McLean of the Toronto Star for an investigation into abuse in Ontario’s nursing homes.

– Arts and Entertainment: Stephanie Nolen, The Globe and Mail, for features on Deepa Mehta and her challenges of making a movie of Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children; Nick Patch, The Canadian Press, for features that included the 60th anniversary of the first rock and roll song; Johanna Schneller, The Globe and Mail, for articles that included the new types of roles women are portraying in film.

– Sports: Josh Brown, Waterloo Region Record, for a feature on a former football player who had hit rock bottom; Ken Dryden, The Globe and Mail, for an essay on head injuries and concussions; Grant Robertson, The Globe and Mail, for a feature on a 13-year-old Formula One driving prodigy from Montreal; Randy Turner, Winnipeg Free Press, for a feature about the ultimately doomed hope of hockey player Rick Rypien to join the reborn Winnipeg Jets.

– Feature Photography: Ivanoh Demers, La Presse in Montreal, for a photo of Jack Layton backstage during an election stop in Quebec; Rafal Gerszak of The Globe and Mail for a photo of a former soldier diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD); Mathew McCarthy of the Waterloo Region Record for photo of a woman with an umbrella seen through rain droplets on a car window.

– International Reporting: Stephanie Nolen of The Globe and Mail for a portrait of young girls attending a ground-breaking school run by a quietly radical nun; Graeme Smith, The Globe and Mail, for coverage of the conflict in Libya; Jennifer Wells of the Toronto Star for her profile of modern-day serfs who mine for gold at the top of the world.

– Editorials: André Pratte of La Presse in Montreal; John Roe of the Waterloo Region Record; Russell Wangersky, St. John’s (NL) Telegram.

– Editorial Cartooning: Marc Beaudet, Le Journal de Montréal; Brian Gable,The Globe and Mail; Bruce MacKinnon, Halifax Chronicle Herald.

– Long Features: Erin Anderssen of The Globe and Mail for a feature on being a mother in the 21st century; Ian Brown, The Globe and Mail, for an exploration of the ethical controversy sparked by new developments in pre natal testing; Patrick White of The Globe and Mail for an anniversary piece on the founding of Nunavut.

– News Photography: Joe Bryksa of the Winnipeg Free Press for a photo of a police takedown; Rich Lam of Getty Images for a photo of a couple kissing during the Vancouver Stanley Cup riots; Steve Russell of the Toronto Star of a photo of Jack Layton just after the election results were known.

– Breaking News: Edmonton Journal team for coverage of the Slave Lake fires; The Globe and Mail team for stories of a murder-suicide in Alberta; London Free Press team for stories of a tornado in nearby Goderich; Mark MacKinnon of The Globe and Mail for coverage of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version had an incorrect spelling for Catherine Farley’s last name.