For Immediate Release
TORONTO, October 3, 2018 – Community newspapers across Canada will be eligible to enter the National Newspaper Awards this year for the first time.
Revisions to contest rules approved September 27 by the organization’s Board of Governors include a provision to open the competition to community newspapers (often known as “weeklies”) provided that they publish original content in print or online at least five days a week.
The National Newspaper Awards were established in 1949 to encourage excellence and reward achievement in Canadian daily newspaper journalism. News agencies operating in Canada have also been eligible since the outset, and over the past decade eligibility has been further extended to news organizations that publish exclusively online on a daily basis. As of the 2018 competition, eligibility is also being extended to organizations that publish print editions weekly or more frequently, provided that they make original content available to readers online on close to a daily basis (i.e. at least five days a week).
NNA Governors also approved the establishment of a formal process to determine eligibility of organizations seeking to enter the competition for the first time. They will be required to submit responses to a questionnaire before December 1 in order for eligibility requests to be considered and ruled on before the contest opens to entries on December 15.
Governors also approved new language intended to clarify eligibility requirements for entrants (in particular freelance journalists) and to clarify expectations on entrants whose work is produced either with outside support or through co-productions involving more than one news organization.
A category that was contested for the first time in 2017, Photo Portfolio/Photo Essay, has been amended to become simply Photo Essay, with portfolio entries no longer accepted. And in all four photo categories, entrants are no longer limited in the number of entries they may submit.
In order to make rules and entry procedures clearer, Governors approved a restatement of the published Rules of Entry and Entry Instructions and Guidelines. The new documents are posted on the NNA website at:
Rules of Entry: https://nna-ccj.ca/rules/
Entry Instructions and Guidelines: https://nna-ccj.ca/tips-on-entering/
Here are highlights of new language and other changes approved by NNA Governors:
o For entries arising from co-productions involving more than one news organization. Such letters must provide details about the co-production arrangement and certify that the entered work was entirely or substantially performed by or for organization(s) eligible to enter the competition.
o For all entries from individuals whose entered work was done on a freelance or contract basis, rather than as an employee of the organization that published the work. Such letters must outline the individual’s journalistic activity during the year for which the work is being entered.
For more information, contact:
Paul Woods, Executive Director