The award for Best Personal Essay is new to the 2017 Digital Publishing Awards program, and our jury has nominated 10 outstanding pieces of personal journalism. The award honours the best overall story in which the writer’s perspective and/or personal experience is the main focus.
Out of this year’s nominees, we explore topics such as coming out to parents, queer mentorship and stories of transitioning, as well as personal tales of the grief associated with miscarriage and widowhood. Family dynamics & traditions, life with cancer, life after the Olympics and the passing of Leonard Cohen are also topics explored in this year’s nominees.
These stories take us on deeply personal journeys through important moments in these writers lives. We invite you to read their stories. Here are the 2017 Digital Publishing Awards nominees for Best Personal Essay:
The winners of the Best Personal Essay award will be announced at the Digital Publishing Awards Soirée on Thursday June 1, 2017 in Toronto. Tickets are now on sale. Congratulations to all of this year’s nominees!
As web presence for magazines, news sources and digital publications becomes increasingly important, journalists and media professionals are now tasked with the near-impossible: create accompanying (or all new) online and mobile content designed to engage us attention span-lacking consumers. It’s definitely not as easy task, but this year, we’ve seen our Canadian content creators surpass expectations— and our judges seem to agree. Over the years, the digital design that blends and supplements news stories, websites, magazine and projects has continued to amaze, challenge and inspire.
The 2017 Best Digital Design Award will honour the digital publication with the most successful and original overall combination of visual and graphic design elements with functionality and user experience. This award is open to web publications, tablet publications, mobile apps, micro-sites and one-off projects.
This year’s best designs included two from the CBC; an interactive feature on Gord Downie of The Tragically Hip and a breakdown of US election results, as well as a pair of magazines, Toronto Life and FASHION, who have brought their impressive print designs to the screen.
The winners of the Best Digital Initiative award will be announced at the Digital Publishing Awards Soirée on Thursday June 1, 2017 in Toronto. Congratulations to all of this year’s nominees!
In 2016, we were introduced to countless new and compelling ways of consuming digital content. Designed and executed by some of the country’s biggest talents—digital initiatives, those that keep you scrolling through until the very end— make for the most engaging and memorable news stories, and we’re excited to share the judges’ top picks for this year’s Best Digital Initiative.
The jury has selected 4 nominees for this year’s award, which honours an innovative digital creation, project, design or concept. This may include a tool, an application, a package, a presentation of data, etc., which enhances audience engagement and/or user experience.
This year’s nominated pieces include an investigation into the hidden hardships of Chile’s most vulnerable, an in-depth look at the consequences of the lack of diversity in newsrooms, un robot français qui peut répondre á toutes vos questions, and personalized newsletters sent straight to your inbox.
Contributors: Kathryn Gretsinger, Claire Ward, Daniel Hernandez, Michelle Ghoussoub, Codi Hauka, Jon Hernandez, Mike Lakusiak, Peter Mothe, Ahmed Najdat, Konstantine Roccas, Natalie Walters and Daisy Xiong
Contributors: Eternity Martis, Allison Baker, Viviane Fairbank, Laura Hensley, Blair Mlotek, Tim Falconer, Lauren McKeon, Jonah Brunet, Erin Sylvester, Sydney Hamilton and Davide Mastracci
The winners of the Best Digital Initiative award will be announced at the Digital Publishing Awards Soirée on Thursday June 1, 2017 in Toronto. Congratulations to all of this year’s nominees!
The nominees have been announced, and now we’re excited to share with you some of the best work from 2016.
The jury for Best Digital Editorial Package has selected 3 nominees for this year’s award, which honours the outstanding and collaborative work of an editorial team—editors and content creators—in creating an original series of related or thematic editorial content that best serves its intended audience by maximizing the potential of digital publishing.
The nominated pieces include a guide to Canada’s best new restaurants, an investigation into global energy access and an interactive story on Canada’s missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. We encourage you to explore all 3 pieces:
Line Atallah, Creator Sarah Musgrave, Editor Laura Service, Digital Designer Contributors: Melisa Discepola, Christopher Waldau, Adam Fardy, Yonnie Chan, Stefanie Sosiak and Andrew Braithwaite
Air Canada enRoute’s Best New Restaurant Guide 2015 won a silver Digital Publishing Award.
Nelly Bouevitch, Mike Ives & Deepak Adhikari, Writers
Erin Millar & Christopher Pollon, Editors Denman Digital & Good Digital Culture, Digital Developers Denman Digital, Digital Designer Contributor: Caitlin Havlak
This is Discourse Media’s first Digital Publishing Awards nomination.
Tavia Grant, Reporter Angela Murphy & Laura Blenkinsop, Editors Jeremy Agius, Digital Designer & Developer Hannah Sung, Video Producer
The Globe and Mail leads the pack in nominations, this year earning 17.
The winners of the Best Digital Editorial Package award will be announced at the Digital Publishing Awards Soirée on Thursday June 1, 2017 in Toronto. Congratulations to all of this year’s nominees!
On Thursday June 1, the Digital Publishing Awards will be presenting the Emerging Excellence Award, an award honouring an individual whose early work in Canadian digital publishing shows the highest degree of craft and promise. This award may recognize a writer, visual creator, designer, developer, publisher or other young professional who has demonstrated excellence and potential in one or more areas of Canadian digital publishing.
This year’s jury has nominated three standout individuals, with the single winner being announced at the Digital Publishing Award Soirée on Thursday June 1.
Let us introduce you to this year’s three candidates:
Manisha Krishnan
Manisha Krishnan joined VICE Canada in 2015 after stints at the Toronto Star, Maclean’s, and the Edmonton Journal, where she honed her impressive skills as a writer and digital journalist. As senior writer for VICE, she has established herself as one of the strongest voices of the next generation of Canadian journalists. In the past year, she was VICE’s lead reporter on the Jian Ghomeshi trial, hosted a live VICE event on sexism in the music industry, and wrote several feature stories in addition to filing daily news hits.
“Manisha is the epitome of the modern journalist, able to work on multiple platforms and in multiple styles, whether that is a brilliantly reported news story, a controversial column on a subject of national interest, or a hilarious first-person essay.”
– Chris Bilton, deputy editor, VICE Canada
Explore some of Manisha’s work from 2016:
Armed and Reasonable: How to Buy a Gun In Canada “We chose Manisha as a host of ‘Armed and Reasonable’ because of her insatiable curiosity and willingness to immerse herself in the world of Canadian firearm culture, even though she admittedly knew nothing about it. Her vulnerability, curiosity and willingness to learn were among the driving forces of the documentary story arc, allowing our audience to discover the world new to them, through her eyes.”
An investigative feature about the Hutterites, a reclusive Christian movement characterized by traditional beliefs whose LGBTQ members are struggling to break out of the closet.
An essay on the incongruity between cannabis policy and law enforcement.
Tom Cardoso
Tom began his career at The Globe and Mail’s summer program in 2014 and quickly distinguished himself as an innovator of digital tools to enhance editorial work, such as the in-house “Chart Tool,” an open-source app that allows any editor or reporter to create responsive charts for mobile, social and even print. Hired as a graphics editor after the summer program, he has been instrumental in developing digital “middleform” content—medium-sized reporting projects that are predominantly visual and can be turned around in a week or two.
“Tom Cardoso is a rare breed amongst journalists. He’s one-third designer, one-third visual producer, and one-half developer. The math there doesn’t add up because the sheer quantity and quality of Cardoso’s work has consistently exceeded expectations. I think of him as the Swiss Army knife our arsenal of tools.”
– Jason Chiu, deputy head of presentation, The Globe and Mail
“The impact of his work has reached audiences across the country, and caught the attention of digital entrepreneurs in newsrooms on both sides of the border. The Wall Street Journal and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch are both using ‘The Chart Tool.’”
– Jason Chiu, deputy head of presentation, The Globe and Mail
“Tom brought an analytical and imaginative approach to his sports projects, allowing us to move away from traditional reporting in order to offer something new. This was a methodical and detailed data story that offered a thorough and alternative assessment of a popular and ongoing debate in the baseball world, especially among Blue Jays fans.”
“By building narratives that seamlessly weave text, graphics and visualizations, Tom is able to tell stories in a way that feels native to readers on mobile and social media. His work, collegial attitude, and passion for journalism set an example for other young Canadian journalists.”
– Matt Frehner, head of presentation, The Globe and Mail
Naël Shiab
Recruited by CBC/Radio Canada in 2011, Naël Shiab travelled the country as a young journalist for three years before completing a Master’s degree in data journalism at the University of King’s College. Upon returning to Montreal, he worked for Journal Métro before joining the team at L’actualité. Since then, he has worked hard to push the boundaries of Canadian journalism, merging reporting with the most advanced algorithms to bring the reader the most personalized information possible. At 28, he has already been recognized in Quebec for his avant-garde work.
“In Naël’s mind lives a journalist and a coder, and the coder is the servant of the journalist. Watching him work is a balm for those like me who believe there is still a future for journalism and the search for truth.”
– Carole Beaulieu, editor-in-chief and publisher, L’actualité
Explore some of Naël’s work from 2016
Budget : voici comment Québec dépense vos impôts This provincial tax calculator allows you to enter your annual salary instantly find out the amount of your provincial income tax, the percentage of your contribution to total government spending, and how much will be spent on a particular service or sector.
Allocations familiales : combien allez-vous recevoir de plus? Faites le test! This tool that Naël created in just a few hours “proved more useful to Canadians than the one created by the government itself! In a few clicks, users could find out not only how much money they would receive under a new Liberal government, but also the old one!”
– Carole Beaulieu, editor-in-chief and publisher, L’actualité
L’Assemblée nationale est sexiste et en voici la preuve Using unpublished data with a personalized computer program that he himself coded, Naël analyzed more than 7 million words spoken by the deputies in Quebec to demonstrate the extent of sexism in the National Assembly.
“Thanks to Naël, for the first time a robot has written reports on our website. And on a very pertinent subject: the robotization of the jobs of our fellow citizens.”
– Carole Beaulieu, editor-in-chief and publisher, L’actualité
This feature story is also nominated in the Best Digital Initiative category and is among the finalists in the One of a Kind category at the National Magazine Awards.
Contrary to what the government claims, Canada exports military goods to countries where human rights are being violated. To give a more accurate picture of the situation, Naël proposed to reclassify Canadian exports according to the Human Freedom Index.
The single recipient of the Emerging Excellence Award will be announced at the Digital Publishing Awards Soirée on Thursday June 1, 2017 in Toronto. Tickets are now on sale for the annual event and can be purchased here.
Congratulations to all of this year’s nominees! Full list of nominees available here.
