Loughlin, Citizen of the Year Awards win Canadian Community Newspaper Awards

On Tuesday, The Citizen won two Canadian Community Newspaper Awards through News Media Canada for its editorial writing and community service.

 

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 comes after The Citizen won four Ontario Community Newspapers Association (OCNA) Better Newspapers Competition awards back in May. 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 provincially 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 Ontario 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 Ontario 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 in Ontario, as well as in the Best Community Website category for its circulation class.

 

Nationally, in 2019, The Citizen won Canadian Community 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 triumphing 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.