Nominees announced for Digital Publishing Awards

The Digital Publishing Awards have announced the nominees for the 2nd annual (2017) awards program in an expanded number of categories that recognize content and creation of Canadian digital publications. The awards are produced by the National Media Awards Foundation. 

Gold, Silver and Honourable Mention awards will be presented at the Digital Publishing Awards soirée on Thursday, June 1 at the Spoke Club, 600 King Street West in Toronto, hosted by author and illustrator Evan Munday. 

Gold winners in most categories include a $500 cash prize. Tickets are on sale at digitalpublishingawards.com.

Highlights of the nominations:

The top nominees this year are The Globe and Mail (17), CBC News (11), BuzzFeed Canada (5), Hakai Magazine (5), The Huffington Post Canada (4), Toronto Life (4), and VICE (3)

Canadian Art, Global News, Hazlitt, Maclean’s, Policy Options Today’s Parent, and L’actualité earned two nominations each.

For the second year in a row, Air Canada enRoute’s “Best New Restaurants” guide is nominated, this year for Best Digital Editorial Package.

TorontoLife.com is nominated for the second time in the Best Digital Design category.

The Maclean’s story “How to Go On After Leonard Cohen” written by Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall is nominated twice, in both Best Arts & Culture Story and Best Personal Essay.

The “Crichton Farm” piece published in The Globe and Mail is nominated twice, in both Best Short Feature and Best Social Storytelling.

Top entered news stories of 2016 include the fentanyl crisis, the Fort McMurray wildfires, cyber security, marijuana legalization and the Canadian real estate market.

Three individuals have been nominated for the Emerging Excellence Award, which recognizes early work in the field:

• Manisha Krishnan of VICE
• Naël Shiab of L'actualité and 
• Tom Cardoso of The Globe and Mail 

Among publications receiving their first  nomination this year were:

• Discourse Media
• Daily Xtra
• Fashion Magazine
• FILLER Magazine
• Global News (globalnews.ca)
• GUTS Magazine
• Liisbeth
• National Observer
• NOW Magazine
• NUVO Magazine
• Policy Options
• Ryerson Review of Journalism
• The Canadian Press
• The Tyee
• urbania.ca
• VICE
• Weddingbells and 
• YMC

Below is the complete list of 2017 nominees

General Excellence in Digital Publishing: Small Publication

• canadianart.ca, Canadian Art
• hakaimagazine.com, Hakai Magazine
• liisbeth.com, Liisbeth
• nationalobserver.com, National Observer
• torontolife.com, Toronto Life
• YMC.com, YMC: Motherhood Unfiltered

General Excellence in Digital Publishing: Large Publication

• cbcnews.ca, CBC News
• theglobeandmail.com, The Globe and Mail

Best Digital Editorial Package

• Canada’s New Restaurants 2016, Air Canada enRoute
• Power Struggle, Discourse Media
• The Trafficked, The Globe and Mail

Best Blog or Online-Only Column

• Born & Raised, The Huffington Post
• Crossing You in Style, FILLER Magazine
• In Our Image, VICE
• Jennifer Ditchburn Columns, Policy Options
• Presidential Poll Tracker, CBC News
• Researching Contemporary Indigenous Art in Public, Canadian Art
• Tim Caulfield: The Cure, Policy Options

Best News Coverage: National & International

• B.C. Real Estate, The Globe and Mail
• Exclusive: How Canadian Police Intercept and Read Encrypted BlackBerry Messages, VICE
• Fentanyl Crisis, The Globe and Mail
• Fort McMurray Fire Coverage, Global News
• What's in your weed? The Globe and Mail

Best News Coverage: Local & Provincial

• The Fort McMurray Wildfire, CBCNews.ca
• The Frontline of Fentanyl, CBC.ca/bc
• When A Tree Falls, The Globe and Mail

Best Feature Article: Short

• Crichton Farm, The Globe and Mail
• ‘Ethnoburbs’: The New Face of Immigrant Cities, The Tyee 
• Meet Al Hill, the Sole Resident of the World's Largest Abandoned Building, CBC News
• Online Scam Artists Are Using Hoaxes About Terrorist Attacks to Make Money, BuzzFeed Canada 

Best Feature Article: Long

• Chop Suey Nation, The Globe and Mail
• Crocodile Rising, Hakai Magazine
• Graffiti Kids, The Globe and Mail
• The Drone and the Damage Done: How Canada's UAV Operation Wounded Its Own, BuzzFeed Canada
• The Whale Dying on a Mountain, Hakai Magazine

Best Personal Essay

• A Grief Like This, Hazlitt
• Brothers Under the Skin, The Globe and Mail
• Family Circus, NUVO Magazine
• Forgiving the Future, GUTS Magazine
• Have You Told Your Parents?, BuzzFeed Canada
• How to Go On After Leonard Cohen, Maclean’s
• The Widowhood Effect, The Globe and Mail
• There’s No Recipe For Growing Up, BuzzFeed Canada
• When Queer Sexual Mentorship Comes in the Form of Cling Wrap, Daily Xtra
• When the Games Are Over, The Walru

Best Arts & Culture Story

• How to Go On After Leonard Cohen, Maclean’s
• North Exposure, The Globe and Mail
• What We Lose When POC Entertainers Crack Into The Mainstream, BuzzFeed Canada

Best Service Feature: Lifestyle

• 2016 Wedding Trends Guide, Weddingbells
• Hidden Toronto, NOW Magazine
• Piece of Cake, Today's Parent
• The Globe 100: Best Books of the Year, The Globe and Mail
• Where to Eat Now, Toronto Life

Best Service Feature: Family, Health & Careers

• Childbirth Stories, CBCNews.ca
• It's Never Been Less Safe to Try Out Drugs, VICE
• Paying to Treat Infertility: Coverage Varies Widely Across Canada, Global News (globalnews.ca)
• Saving Sid, CBC News

Best Online Video: Short

• 15 Fun Facts About Sperm, Today's Parent
• Fort McMurray Fire: Before and After, The Globe and Mail
• How the Powerful Opioid Fentanyl Kills: A CBC News explainer, CBC News

Best Online Video: Feature

• Autour du jukebox avec Safia Nolin et Philippe Brach, urbania.ca
• Coming Out to My First-Generation Parents, The Huffington Post Canada
• So Fresh and So Clean: Behind the Scenes with the Raptors Equipment Staff, Sportsnet
• The Right to Roam, Hakai Magazine
• Toddler With Paralysis Zips Around in Homemade Wheelchair, The Canadian Press

Best Online Video: Mini-Doc

• Abandoned at Birth - One woman's incredible search for her birth mother, Chatelaine
• Growing Pains, The Globe and Mail
• Salute, The Huffington Post Canada
• The 6,000-Year-Old Village, Hakai Magazine

Best Podcast

• Cavern of Secrets, Hazlitt
• Colour Code, The Globe and Mail
• Missing & Murdered: Who Killed Alberta Williams, CBCNews.ca

Best Digital Design

• fashionmagazine.com, Fashion Magazine
• Looking For a Place to Happen, CBC News
• torontolife.com, Toronto Life
• U.S. Election: Live Results, CBC News

Best Social Storytelling

• Crichton Farm, The Globe and Mail
• Fort McMurray Wildfires, The Huffington Post Canada
• It Doesn’t Have to Hurt, YMC

Best Digital Initiative

• Allez-vous être remplacé par un robot? Demandez-le à… notre robot!, L'actualité
• Hidden in Plain Sight: Stories on Migration and HIV in Chile, UBC School of Journalism
• Toronto Life Email Newsletters, Toronto Life
• Why Diversity, Ryerson Review of Journalism