WE Vancouver has earned accolades from its peers in the Canadian Community Newspaper Association.
At last weeks gala in Toronto, WE was awarded three honours: a first-place feature award for Jessica Barretts haunting story of Dan Winnicks death; second place for best coverage of the arts by its team of writers, and a third-place award for Justyna Krols The Murderer Among Us cover art.
We are thrilled by the honour and salute the WEs entire staff, as well as the advertisers who make putting out one of Vancouvers best urban weekly newspapers possible.
The judges comments are as follows.
Best Feature Story, circulation 12,500 and over, 1st
First place goes to the Vancouver WE/Westender. Wow. A tour de force of writing skill [by Jessica Barrett], well-framed messaging and heart-breaking storytelling. We were blown away by this story in every way conceivable. The writer is very skillful as she unveils, very slowly, progressively and compellingly, the full scope of Dan Winnicks death on his friends and local community.
Best Coverage of the Arts, circulation 10,000 and over, 2nd
WE Vancouvers street art cover feature was an excellent breakdown of a controversial art form that, while maintaining a local focus, asked questions that are relevant as a larger, national dialogue. Elsewhere, its interviews and reviews offer insight, diversity and a general sense of engagement with its world that goes deeper than a surface-level connection, a valuable resource in any city.
Congratulations also to our sister paper, the North Shore Outlook, which came third.
Best Photo Illustration, 3rd
Overall impact is very important in newspapers, obviously. It grabs the reader, then hopefully entices them to read on and get more information. Without both of these elements, creativity and technical skill dont matter. Sometimes the greatest skill (and hardest thing to execute) is to know when to keep it simple.
The WE scored high on impact and communication.
