NB Anglican shines with five national newspaper awards

The New Brunswick Anglican scored five awards in the Canadian Christian Communicators Association annual online awards ceremony May 3. 

Last year, the paper won only one award: best Christian newspaper in Canada, the premier award.

This year, it placed first in that category again, which means the New Brunswick Anglican has been chosen the best in the country four years out of the last five. 

Here are the 2024 awards for the NB Anglican:

NEWS - 3rd place, ‘His name was Luke,’ by Gisele McKnight, published January 2023. This story recounted the memorial service for Luke Landry, a Christian and an addict who died in Moncton. He was long associated with St. George’s, where the service was held. 

PHOTO ESSAY – 1st place, Retired Clergy Tea, NB Anglican, published September 2023

FRONT PAGE – 1st place, December issue. This front page featured a photo of an ACW member rappelling down a 20-storey building in Moncton and the accompanying story.

GENERAL EXCELLENCE - 1st place, NB Anglican. This award measures the entire paper – stories, photos, design, graphics, creativity, and relevance to readers. This was judged on three editions: September, October and December.

AC FORREST AWARD for socially conscious religious journalism - honorable mention Gisele McKnight, “Outflow Ministry turns to tiny home construction” for the story published in February 2023 on Catapult Construction’s tiny home project housed in the former All Saints Anglican Church in East Saint John. 

Judges’ comments
News story – “His name was Luke:” In its understated simplicity, this story is profoundly moving and reminds us that each human being is important and must be celebrated. The brief and turbulent life of one man named Luke and the manner in which a community came together to eulogize him was conveyed in a steady and kind tone by the writer. In reading this story, we feel that we too have mourned his loss.

Photo Essay - Retired Clergy Tea:  Good use of different sizes and formats of photos to make a compelling layout. Simple text sets the stage for the photo essay, keeping the focus on the images. The choice of photos shows a range of participants and gives different “feels” to the event, and an event like this can be challenging to bring to life in photos.

Front Page: Uplifting, solid design, clear, crisp, and exciting. It’s all about the photo! The exciting photo (needs a double-take) enhances the visual appeal of the front-page story, and when combined with the headline, creates compelling storytelling. The layout features ample white space, providing a clean aesthetic. 

Additionally, five prompts in the layout encourage readers to explore further into the newspaper. The treatment of the cutline is well-executed, allowing the photo to occupy as much space as possible and effectively drawing the eye to this information.

AC Forrest award, “Outflow Ministry turns to tiny home construction:”  The photos illustrate the story extremely well in this timely housing article. Including the editor’s note and the Outflow Ministry philosophy added a special dimension. It shows that a different font or type setting, boxes, colour, etc. can be utilized very successfully. 

It shows how a former church facility can be resurrected to bring new life to people. In partnering with appropriate community groups, the church provided the location where carpentry and other life skills can be learned and applied to alleviate serious housing problems. 

Maybe the housing idea can be duplicated in other communities across Canada. Having a wide range of comments from the various stakeholders shows how the parts add to the impact of the whole.

General Excellence award:  The terrific front-page photos are real eye catchers. The stories capture readers with very solid ledes – starts to the story. You have one chance to make a good first impression, or you risk your audience heading off to watch cat videos on their smartphone. You have about 20 words to do it. That may not be fair, but it is the modern media environment, so you must know how to sell your story in a hurry. This publication does that. 

There seem to be photos from events everywhere and apparently there was a reporter everywhere anything newsworthy was happening. A key to keeping your audience is to tell stories that matter to them, and stories with photos from that community are a great selling point. 

The Two-Minute Interview is a great way to get faces into the paper, always important. The ‘Clergy Spouses’ Stories with Anna Lee’ is a neat idea and it’s one readers can flip to in each edition.

The double-trucks – using the middle pages as a feature space - is smart and they are well used here.