Nunatsiaq News earns nine award nominations

Nunatsiaq News reporter Sarah Rogers. (FILE PHOTO)

Nunatsiaq News has been nominated for nine Quebec Community Newspaper Association awards this year and reporter Sarah Rogers leads the pack with three individual nominations.

The awards, which recognize excellence in reporting, writing, newspaper design and websites, are presented annually and pay tribute to work done the previous year — in this case 2014.

Rogers’ three nominations include:

• Best News Story — for the Montreal subway bird plucker;

• Best Investigative or In-Depth Reporting — for a series of stories on homeless Inuit in Montreal; and,

• Best Business Column or Feature — for a story on women truck drivers at the Meadowbank mine.

Reporter Peter Varga received a nomination for Best Environmental Story for a feature on the sorry state of waste management in Nunavut.

Senior reporter Jane George has been nominated in the category of Best Municipal/Civic Affairs Story for a story about tenants upset with the deterioration of public housing units in Cambridge Bay.

Reporter David Murphy and assistant editor Lisa Gregoire were also jointly nominated for a story they wrote on the spring tradition of hunting seal pups in North Baffin.

Nunatsiaq News was also nominated for three design awards: best front page, best editorial page and best photo essay for a spread of photographs depicting the damage wrought by a powerful blizzard in Iqaluit Jan. 8, 2014.

The photo essay, entitled “Blown Away,” was designed by senior production artist Andrea Gray and included photographs by Jim Bell, David Murphy and Adamie Sakeeta.

At the awards ceremony last year, Nunatsiaq News took home four reporting and writing awards and one advertising design award.

The QCNA represents 33 Quebec-based English and bilingual community newspapers. Since Nunavut does not have its own association, and because we cover northern Quebec, we are members of the QCNA.

This year’s awards will be handed out May 29 in Montreal.