Journal nominated for three Ontario newspaper awards

Journal Staff Your independent hometown Sarnia Journal has been nominated for three Ontario newspaper awards — including best weekly newspaper in the province.

Journal Staff

Your independent hometown Sarnia Journal has been nominated for three Ontario newspaper awards — including best weekly newspaper in the province.

The Journal is a finalist in its circulation class for the General Excellence Award, the highest honour bestowed by the Ontario Community Newspaper Association.

The award recognizes outstanding achievement in a community newspaper based on the overall quality of its news and sports, photography, advertising and layout.

The Journal, which has a circulation of 30,000 and competes in the second largest of six provincial categories, was a winner of the General Excellence Award last year.

“This is our industry peers saying the Journal team as a whole is producing one of the best weekly newspapers in Ontario, and has been for the past two years,” said editor George Mathewson.

“We’re about to mark our fifth anniversary in a few weeks, and this news is like icing on the birthday cake.”

Reporter Tara Jeffrey earned the second OCNA nomination for a sports story last May that exposed Sarnia’s failure to provide girls playing on boys’ hockey teams with proper change rooms at two municipal arenas.

The Journal has also been nominated for best headline writing among the 240 newspapers that comprise the Ontario Community Newspapers Association.

The winners will be announced at an April 5 awards gala at the Hilton Garden Inn in Vaughan, Ont.