Globe and Mail tops the National Newspaper Awards shortlist with 15 finalists

TORONTO – The Globe and Mail is leading the pack in the run-up to the 2012 National Newspaper Awards, with 15 entries on the list of finalists.

Montreal’s La Presse is close behind with 12, followed by the Toronto Star with nine and The Canadian Press with five.

The Edmonton Journal, The Vancouver Sun and the Winnipeg Free Press are next with three each, then the Hamilton Spectator, the National Post and Postmedia News with two each.

Single nominations went to Barrie Examiner, Brandon Sun, Brantford Expositor, Huffington Post, Kamloops Daily News, Le Journal de Montreal, London Free Press, Montreal Gazette, Ottawa Citizen, Reuters, St. John’s Telegram, St. Catharines Standard, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Waterloo Region Record, Victoria Times Colonist.

The 72 finalists in 22 categories were announced Wednesday from the National Newspaper Awards office in Toronto.

The winners will be honoured May 3 in a ceremony in Ottawa.

There were 1,430 entries in this year’s competition for works that appeared in 2012. In all, 26 news organizations were nominated.

This is the 24th 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.

Here’s a list of the nominees:

– Multimedia Feature: La Presse of Montreal for a multimedia voyage along the Mississippi River; The Canadian Press for its Census Project that looked at Canada’s changing society; The Globe and Mail for a multimedia examination of post-secondary education in Canada; Winnipeg Free Press for a portrait of an international humanitarian and medical mission.

– News Feature Photography: Tyler Anderson, National Post, for a photo of a worker snoozing in the back during a Mayor Rob Ford speech at a Toronto Real Estate Board gathering; Aaron Vincent Elkaim of The Canadian Press, for a photo of the mother of a slain teenager taken through a hearse’s open window; Lyle Stafford of the Victoria Times-Colonist for a photo of a photo of Justin Trudeau’s casual talk at the University of Victoria.

– Beat Reporting: Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press, for stories using Access to Information; Sharon Kirkey, Postmedia News, for her health beat; Heather Scoffield, The Canadian Press, for stories on aboriginal affairs; Mary Agnes Welch, Winnipeg Free Press, for her public policy coverage.

– Explanatory Work: James Bagnall of the Ottawa Citizen for a story on the intricate meltdown of Nortel; Ian Brown of The Globe and Mail for a story on forgiveness; Mary Ormsby of the Toronto Star for an examination of why horses win big races.

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– Politics: Linda Gyulai, The Gazette, Montreal for stories of corruption in Quebec’s construction industry; Stephen Maher (Postmedia News) and Glen McGregor (The Ottawa Citizen) for a look at robocalls and their impact on voting; Peter O’Neil, The Vancouver Sun, for stories on the government’s environmental policies.

– Short Features: Erin Anderssen, The Globe and Mail, for a story of a daughter honoring her late father in an unusual way; Jayme Poisson, Toronto Star, for story of a woman whose husband killed their son and himself; Lindor Reynolds, Winnipeg Free Press, for a piece on a Scanterbury resident who built a giant red chair to honour the community’s ditch wavers.

– Local Reporting: Cam Fortems and Michele Young, Kamloops Daily News, for stories on health care in a thinly-populated area of BC; Susan Gamble, Brantford Expositor, for stories on OxyContin abuse and stolen car epidemic in Brantford; Karena Walter, St. Catharines Standard, for an investigation of a phoney kitchen renovation company; Barb Sweet, St. John’s Telegram, NL, for the enduring fallout of the sexual abuse tragedy at the Mount Cashel orphanage.

– Presentation: Jocelyn Potelle, La Presse, Montreal; Dean Tweed, Hamilton Spectator; Spencer Wynn, Nuri Ducassi, Raffi Anderian and Katie Daubs, Toronto Star.

– Sports Photography: Mark Blinch, Reuters, for a silhouette of a pole vaulter against backdrop of the CN Tower in Toronto; Bernard Brault, La Presse, Montreal, for photo of a distraught Canadian Olympic athlete after losing a medal due to disqualification; Ed Kaiser, Edmonton Journal, for a photo of joyous soccer star Christine Sinclair at the Olympics.

– Business: Grant Robertson, Tara Perkins, Richard Blackwell, The Globe and Mail, for stories of a looming downturn in Canada’s housing market; Jacquie McNish, Brent Jang, Sean Silcoff, The Globe and Mail for stories of the power struggle at Canadian Pacific Railway; Mark MacKinnon, Andy Hoffman, The Globe and Mail for a story of draconian reactions by Chinese authorities over critics who use short selling to discredit Chinese companies and benefit financially.

– Columns: Daphne Bramham, Vancouver Sun; Doug Saunders, The Globe and Mail; David Staples, Edmonton Journal.

– Investigations: David Bruser and Jesse McLean, Toronto Star, for an investigation into why police knowingly lie; Steve Buist, The Hamilton Spectator, for a study of health care networks and their effectiveness; Isabelle Hachey, La Presse, Montreal, for a story on SNC Lavalin’s connections with a largely discredited regime in Libya; Huffington Post and King’s College team, for an examination of the inner workings of an immigration program in Prince Edward Island.

– Arts and Entertainment: Stephanie Nolen, The Globe and Mail, for a story of a Canadian adult entertainment star’s success in Bollywood; J. Kelly Nestruck, The Globe and Mail, for a stories that included theatre companies’ strategy for survival; Sylvie St-Jacques of La Presse in Montreal for a feature on controversial author Nancy Huston.

– Sports: David A. Ebner, The Globe and Mail, for profiles of football coaches including Don Matthews; Dave Feschuk, Toronto Star, for a series on high tech hockey sticks; Roy MacGregor, The Globe and Mail, for a story on Greg Gilhooly, a former gifted athlete battling depression; minor hockey in Kirkland Lake; and bodychecking among children. .

– Feature Photography: Tyler Anderson, National Post, for a photo of a northern Ugandan woman who had her ears and nose chopped off during the terror regime of the Lord’s Resistance Army; Peter Power, The Globe and Mail, for a photo of a woman at a palliative-care hospice embracing a social worker during the final hours of the woman’s mother; Tim Smith, Brandon Sun, for a photo of a child coping with a rare illness that makes it hard for her to clear her throat on her own.

– International Reporting: Agnès Gruda of La Presse in Montreal, for a story on the children impacted by the Syrian war; Michèle Ouimet, La Presse, Montreal, for a story of the toll that the war in Syria is taking on its citizens; Geoffrey York, The Globe and Mail, for a story on children working in the mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

– Editorials: David Evans, Edmonton Journal; Jordan Himelfarb, Toronto Star; John Roe of the Waterloo Region Record.

– Editorial Cartooning: Serge Chapleau, La Presse, Montreal; Andy Donato, The Toronto Sun; Brian Gable, The Globe and Mail.

– Long Features: Catherine Porter, Toronto Star, for a feature on a two-year-old girl dealing with a battle with a rare and inoperable fatal brain tumour; Fabrice de Pierrebourg of La Presse in Montreal for a revealing story of Russian espionage techniques; Toronto Star team for a story on the life and death of an ordinary woman who led a magical life; Charles Hamilton and David Hutton, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, for a story of a chronic drunk and steps made to help him.

– News Photography: Chantal Poirier, Le Journal de Montréal, for a photo of mother acting out after confronting a suspected sexual deviant who is accused of murdering her daughter 11 years ago; Alain Roberge, La Presse, Montreal, for a photo of a protester jumping on a police car during student demonstrations; Mark Wanzel, Barrie Examiner, for a dramatic shot of a police officer trying desperately to hold on to a man trying to jump from an overpass to a busy highway.

– Breaking News: Vancouver bureau of The Canadian Press for coverage of the deadly Burns Lake sawmill fire; London Free Press team for coverage of a crash that killed 10 immigrant workers and their driver; Gillian Shaw, Lori Culbert, Dean Broughton, The Vancouver Sun, for coverage of the Amanda Todd suicide; La Presse team of Gbrielle Duchaine, Vincent Larouche, Daphné Cameron for stories of Luka Magnotta, the man accused of killing and dismembering a Montreal student.

– Project of the Year: La Presse, Montréal, for a project on alternative healers; The Globe and Mail for a project on immigration policy; Toronto Star for a study of autism.