Citizen wins three OCNA Awards at provincial Independent Publishers Retreat
BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN
The Citizen has returned from the Ontario Community Newspapers Association (OCNA) Independent Publishers Retreat in Niagara-on-the-Lake over the weekend with two silver medals and one bronze in this year’s Better Newspapers Competition.
In the General Excellence category for newspapers with circulations between 1,501 and 8,000 - the middle class between 1,500 and under and 8,000 and over - The Citizen placed third behind the New Liskeard Temiskaming Speaker in second and the Eganville Leader in first. The good folks at The Haldimand Press received an honourable mention.
In the Best Business and Finance Story category, reporter Scott Stephenson placed second with his feature on St. Brigid’s Creamery. He bested a story by Ken Kellar in the Fort Frances Times, but fell short to a story by Rob Perry in the Alymer Express.
Finally, in the Community Service category, The Citizen and its Citizen of the Year Awards placed second, ahead of The Lake Report’s “Celebrating the Women of NOTL” and behind The Independent Serving Petrolia and Central Lambton’s 1874 replica newspaper to celebrate Petrolia’s 150th anniversary.
Last year, The Citizen earned two second-place and two third-place finishes in the provincial awards.
In the General Excellence category for its circulation class, The Citizen placed second, finishing ahead of The Haliburton County Echo in third place, but behind The Listowel Banner in first place.
Editor Shawn Loughlin claimed second place in the Best Business or Finance Story category with his profile on Jeff Linton and Linton Pasture Pork. Loughlin was bested by a story in The Aylmer Express, but beat a story from The Fort Frances Times.
In the Best Rural Story category, Loughlin’s story on the provincial government’s doomed farm property severance policy proposal with local expert Wayne Caldwell placed third behind Niagara-on-the-Lake’s The Lake Report in second and The Haldimand Press in first.
Karen Webster placed third in the Heritage category for her bi-weekly column on local history, finishing behind The Eganville Leader in second place and The Listowel Banner in first.
Last fall, The Citizen also won a pair of Canadian Community Newspaper Awards.
First, Editor Shawn Loughlin placed third in the Best Local Editorial category for a newspaper with a circulation under 10,000. The editorial in question was published in the Jan. 20, 2023 issue of The Citizen, entitled “A Community’s Centre”, tackling North Huron Council considering closing the Blyth and District Community Centre and the importance of a community centre in a village such as Blyth.
Loughlin was bested only by the Manitoulin Expositor on Manitoulin Island in first place and The Rocky Mountain Goat in Valemount and McBride, British Columbia in second.
Second, The Citizen placed third in the Outstanding Community Service category for the presentation of its Citizen of the Year Awards last year.
Victoria News from British Columbia placed first in the category for its “Mental Health Overdose Prevention Resource Guide 2023”, while The Lake Report took the silver medal with its work on “Celebrating the Women of Niagara-on-the-Lake”.
This came after The Citizen won four Ontario Community Newspapers Association (OCNA) Better Newspapers Competition awards back in May of 2024. Loughlin earned second- and third-place awards in the Best Business or Finance Story and Best Rural Story categories, respectively, while the newspaper itself placed second in the General Excellence category for its circulation class and columnist Karen Webster placed third in the Heritage category for her “Glimpses of the Past” column.
The Citizen has been a consistent presence on the national and provincial awards circuits in recent years, in addition to Stops Along The Way being honoured provincially with a 2021 award, a silver medal in the Best Vertical Product category. The Citizen’s website received an honourable mention at the 2021 OCNA awards in addition to the Stops Along The Way win.
In 2020, The Citizen placed second in the Best Special Section (circulation under 9,999) for its special section on the annual reunion of the Huron Pioneer Thresher and Hobby Association.
At the 2019 awards, The Citizen placed third in the General Excellence category for its circulation class and Loughlin won a bronze medal in the Best Sports Photograph of the Year category.
In 2018, The Citizen placed first in the Best Rural Story category for newspapers with a circulation of 9,999 or under for a story on rural homelessness written by Rural Voice Editor Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot, while in 2017, the newspaper won first place in the Best Community Website category for a newspaper with a circulation under 9,999.
In 2015, The Citizen placed third in General Excellence for its circulation class, as well as in the Best Community Website category for its circulation class.
In 2019, The Citizen won a News Media Canada national newspaper award in the Best Rural Story category, which followed several years of honours at the national level.
The Citizen received second-place finishes in the Best Overall Newspaper, Best Front Page and Best Editorial Page categories for its circulation class at the 2014 awards before winning gold in all three categories the following year, being named the best newspaper in Canada, the best front page and the best editorial page in its circulation class that year.