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Winnipeg Free Press - ONLINE EDITION

Canadian newspapers honour their own

By: Staff Writer

22/05/2009 10:06 PM | Comments: 1

The Globe and Mail took home the lion’s share of the honours Friday night at the 60th National Newspaper Awards gala held in Montreal.

The Globe and Mail claimed six of the 22 awards.

Winnipeg Free Press humour columnist Doug Speirs and sports columnist Randy Turner earned National Newspaper Award nominations, but were runners-up in their categories.

"It’s a great year when the paper is nominated for two National Newspaper Awards," Winnipeg Free Press editor Margo Goodhand said Friday night.

"Randy and Doug are tremendously talented writers, and we’re proud of both of them," said Goodhand.

The Toronto Star was second in awards with four, followed by Montreal’s La Presse and the Hamilton Spectator with two each.

The Canadian Press, Toronto Sun, Calgary Herald, London Free Press, Montreal Gazette, Lethbridge Herald, Simcoe Reformer and Ottawa Citizen had one each.

The 22 winners were among 66 finalists and 1,385 entries.

Winners received cheques for $1,000 and a certificate of award. Runners-up received citations of merit.

Speirs was nominated in the columnist category for a series of columns on waiting in line at Tim Hortons, for an open letter he penned to International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge, and a humorous guide to the federal election.

Christopher Hume of The Toronto Star won the columnist’s award.

Turner was nominated for his coverage of the Beijing Olympics and for "The Killing Field," a candid look at the physical toll football takes on CFL players.

Turner, who won an NNA in 2004, lost out to veteran and venerable Red Fisher of the Montreal Gazette for a critical feature on former Canadiens great goaltender Patrick Roy who had his number retired by the Canadiens.

Speirs, who began writing the paper’s humour column three years ago, said he was totally stunned by the nomination.

This is the 20th year for the NNAs under a board of governors that includes editors, publishers and the public from across Canada, as well as representatives from the Toronto Press Club.

The National Newspaper Awards were founded by The Toronto Press Club in 1949.

The newspaper industry is adapting to the huge appetite for online content by expanding the websites associated with their print editions.

To acknowledge the trend, the NNAs introduced the first online category last year. The Globe and Mail took the award for multimedia feature Friday for a project from Afghanistan known as "Talking to the Taliban."

— The Canadian Press, staff

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