Consistency continues to pay off for The Morning Star.
For the fourth straight year, The Morning Star finished in the top three in its circulation category for general excellence in the annual B.C. Yukon Community Newspaper Association Ma Murray Awards, which were handed out last weekend in Richmond.
The Morning Star earned silver, finishing with 70.33 points outs of 100, and only 1.18 points behind the winner, The Vancouver Courier.
Kamloops This Week finished third out of 10 papers in the category with 69.50 points.
“This, again, is an overall team effort,” said Morning Star publisher Ian Jensen.
“Everybody from the reporters and photographers, to the graphic artists, the sales and front office staff, our press room, carriers and drivers, we can’t do the great job we do, edition after edition, without everybody chipping in.”
General excellence takes into account 11 separate scoring categories, from front page to features to classified sections and advertising design.
“You don’t need to look beyond the front page to observe The Morning Star’s commitment to presenting easily accessible news to the community,” wrote the judge.
“It is the only paper in the category that features stories in their entirety on their cover.
“The Morning Star has the best arts coverage of all entries, both in terms of space and content, adds its Live Wire listings to inform where those events may be found, and is then followed by one of the most thorough and engaging Community Calendars in this group.”
The judge was also impressed with The Morning Star’s use of colour throughout its pages.
The Morning Star is a Black Press publication and was one off 11 Black Press papers that finished in the top-three of the seven general excellence categories.
The paper also won a national honour.
The Morning Star took first place in the Best Holiday Edition for circulations of more than 12,500 in the annual Canadian Community Newspaper Association’s awards.
“I liked this section. It had good balance throughout the paper, good lead news/holiday-hope themed story in the front to set the tone for the rest of the paper,” said the category judge.
“Awesome ads, and loved the cheeky fun house/staff ad (which saw The Morning Star staff portrayed as Minions). Bravo, well done, lots of compliments for this effort.”
The Morning Star beat out submissions from the Canadian Jewish News in Toronto, and the Surrey/North Delta/White Rock Now.
