Tag: Canadian Journalism

The NMAF is proud to present the roster of judges for the 2018 Digital Publishing Awards. Each year, the Foundation relies on the expertise of over 75 volunteer judges—writers, editors, publishers, designers and other digital creators—to evaluate the entries, debate their merits, and decide on the nominees and winners. Our sincerest thanks to all of the judges who volunteered their time and shared their expertise!

Canadian Geographic editor-in-chief Aaron Kylie is an awarding-winning writer/editor /manager of national magazines. He was previously publications manager at the Canadian Wildlife Federation, where he oversaw Canadian Wildlife, Biosphere and Wild magazines, and prior to that, the long-time managing editor at Outdoor Canada magazine.

Alex Baldinger is a senior editor at Toronto Life, where he oversees the magazine’s food coverage. He previously worked at The Washington Post, where he was a James Beard Award-nominated food writer and the digital editor for the newspaper’s Food section. He lives in Toronto’s Leslieville neighbourhood.

Alicia Cox Thomson has worked in media for 15 years for some of Canada’s biggest lifestyle brands including Chatelaine, HGTV Canada and Flare. When not taking care of her two kids, she freelance writes and consults on digital and social media projects. Visit Thomson on Twitter @aliciahcox

Andree Lau is the editor-in-chief of HuffPost Canada after serving as managing editor of news. She helped launch HuffPost B.C. in 2012 and later also managed HuffPost Alberta. Lau previously worked for CBC News as a TV reporter, videojournalist, writer/producer, and online editor in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Regina, and New Brunswick.

Angela Misri is an award-winning journalist who has worked for the CBC, The Banff Centre, The Globe and Mail, and now as the Digital Director for The Walrus. Angela also teaches journalism and brand journalism courses at Ryerson University and at the University of Toronto in addition to authoring the Portia Adams Adventures.

Anita Li is the director of communities at Discourse Media and founder of The Other Wave, a website dedicated to covering media from a multicultural perspective. Prior to that, she served as senior editor of Fusion’s flagship Justice vertical and as news director at Complex. Anita has also held reporting and editing positions at media outlets across North America, including Mashable, The Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, CBC and CTV. In 2015, she gave a TEDx talk on the importance of diversity in newsrooms. Anita frequently provides commentary on journalistic innovation and the future of media.

Anna Minzhulina is an art director and design artist. For more than a decade she art directed and designed Maisonneuve magazine. During that time, the publication has won the Magazine of the Year award twice. Many artists were nominated as well as rewarded for their work under her direction. Minzhulina herself was nominated multiple times and National Magazine awards for Best Cover, Best Issue, and Best Art Direction. She previously served as a judge for Still Life Photography category and Best Editorial Package.

After studying classical and jazz music in college, Antoine Bordeleau started shooting photos and videos pretty naturally. Combining his musical experience to his newfound love of moving images, he rapidly grew as a music video artist amongst the Québec and Montréal underground scenes. After directing many music videos and 43 episodes of a gonzo documentary video series, he was recruited by VOIR in Montreal, entering the world of cultural journalism and bringing into it his attraction to the lesser-known strata of Québécois music. He now heads the MishMash Media audiovisual creation department, producing podcasts, videos, photos and articles for both VOIR Magazine and L’actualité.

Aphrodite Salas is a broadcast journalist and academic based in Montreal. She is currently Assignment Editor and Video Journalist at CTV Montreal. She is also an Assistant Professor of Journalism at Concordia University for the 2017-2018 academic year. Prior to her work at CTV Montreal, Aphrodite was senior anchor for Global Quebec. Prior to that, she covered national politics on Parliament Hill for CityTV’s Toronto and Vancouver stations. Aphrodite has also worked as a national correspondent for CTV News in Montreal, and was the network’s transportation reporter in Toronto. As an anchor, Aphrodite has been on the desks of CTV’s Newsnet, CityTV’s CP24 and for two CTV affiliates – CKCO Kitchener and CFQC Saskatoon. Aphrodite holds an Honours BA from the University of Toronto, an MA in Public Administration from Concordia University and a Certificate of Proficiency in French from McGill University.

Arjun Basu is the Senior Vice President, Products, at Bookmark Content & Communications, and a past President of the National Media Awards Foundation.

Britt Gallpen is a Toronto-based writer, editor and curator. Since 2015, she has been Editor of the Inuit Art Quarterly. Britt has written catalogue texts for the Banff Centre’s Walter Phillips Gallery and grunt gallery, in addition to contributions to numerous publications including Canadian Art, esse art + opinions and Prefix Photo.

Bruce Gillespie is an associate professor in the digital media and journalism program at Wilfrid Laurier University. He is the author of “News Writing and Reporting: An Introduction to Skills and Theory” (Oxford University Press) and was the editor-in-chief of J-Source.ca from 2013-16.

Bruno Boutot is a digital media consultant, based in Montreal. He is a former journalist and editor-in-chief. He is the author of Media Machina, an essay on business models for digital media. He runs @PlateauCom, an experiment on hyperlocal news.

Caitlin Kenny is a beauty and style editor with a knack for digital storytelling. After a joint degree in journalism from the University of Ottawa and Algonquin College, her career began in the print world with seven years in FLARE’s beauty department. As magazine brands began to embrace the web, Caitlin became increasingly enamoured by the way stories come to life online. In her current role as The Kit’s digital director, she develops content for thekit.ca and its social media channels. From 140-character hits to engaging videos, the mix of formats keeps her job exciting. She has also written for Hello! Canada, Glow, Cosmetics and Beautezine.

An experienced editor and creative director, Cameron Williamson is the Editor-in-Chief of FLARE and the Director of Entertainment, Digital Content & Publishing for Rogers Media. Prior to joining FLARE in 2014, Williamson launched Globe Style Advisor, the lifestyle quarterly published by The Globe and Mail. From 2006 to 2009, he was the Art Director at Chatelaine and earlier in his career, he was Fashion Editor at Saturday Night and the National Post and Creative Director at Toro Magazine. Since FLARE became digital-only in early 2017, the brand has experienced exponential growth, hitting an all-time high of 1.1 million Canadian unique views in comScore in January 2018—making it the second largest digital-only fashion and beauty brand in the country.

Chantal Braganza is a digital editor at TVO.org, where she writes and produces stories about politics, policy and social justice. Her writing has appeared in Toronto Life, the Globe and Mail, New York Times Magazine, Chatelaine, and FASHION, among others.

Chris Frey is a partner in No Media Company, a multimedia creative studio, and the Toronto correspondent for Monocle. He is a six-time National Magazine Award winner and the founding editor of Hazlitt and Toronto Standard. His writing has appeared in The Guardian, The Walrus, Globe and Mail, Kinfolk, Maisonneuve, Azure, enRoute and the Alpine Review.

Christa Morrison specializes in the science and art of digital teaching and learning, storytelling, and strategic content management. She keeps her finger on the pulse of emerging media, educational and marketing technologies & trends. Christa taught in Journalism and Business programs in Canada and offers boot camps in South Africa. She loves poetry, the presence of trees, young adults, and the wrinkles around her knees.

Christian Duperron is the deputy editor-in-chief and audience development manager for HuffPost Québec, a team that he joined 5 years ago. Previously, he worked as director of digital platforms and web editor-in-chief for the Métro Montréal newspaper.

Fuelled by a passion to blend design, the arts, and disruptive technology, Christian Panson led the Free Press team to a number of firsts for traditional media companies. The Free Press made history in North America as the first major newspaper to implement a micro-accounting and post-pay digital paid platform that also allowed content recommendation to be at the core of its publishing effort. Before joining the Free Press in 2006. Christian was a partner in Lazer-fare Media Services, a software development and consulting company, which also had a history of blazing new territory, including transitioning over 100 publishers from paste-up to desktop publishing, migrating many to full PDF publishing workflows, and in turn, leading them to digital publishing. A self-described early adopter junky, Christian is also a father and grandfather.

After earning a degree in Journalism, Claudine St-Germain became a freelance writer before joining Coup de pouce magazine, occupying successively the role of feature editor, executive editor and editor in chief. She is now the executive editor at L’actualité.

Conan Tobias is a print- and digital-media editor, writer, publisher, and consultant, and the editor-in-chief and publisher of Taddle Creek, a general-interest arts magazine.

Corina Milic is an editor at the literary humour magazine, The Feathertale Review. She has over a decade’s worth of digital experience as an award-winning journalist, news editor and currently, as a digital communications manager.

Craig Salia is a leader in digital experience design, guiding businesses in the creation and development of innovative and engaging products on a range of connected platforms. He is currently leading the product and design teams for CBC’s digital offerings.

Crystal Chan is a journalist, writer, and editor. Currently, she is the developmental editor at UBC Press of a new interactive platform and digital publication series for Indigenous and collaborative authorship. Previously she was an artist-in-residence in the Banff Centre’s Digital Narratives program. Based in Montreal, she was born in Hong Kong and raised in Vancouver.

Dan Lytwyn is a video journalist at BBC News in Toronto. He previously worked as a video producer and studio lead at HuffPost Canada.

David Topping is the Senior Manager of Product at St. Joseph Media, which publishes Toronto Life and FASHION, among other titles, where he leads digital product development and management for all of the company’s editorial brands, as well as the clients of its custom content wing, Strategic Content Labs. In his career in Canadian media, largely in digital leadership roles, he’s launched successful products, built fledgling outlets into powerhouses, and turned decades-old legacy brands towards their digital futures. He’s worked at everything from flush start-ups to poor but punchy up-and-comers, and his work has been regularly recognized as the best of its kind in the country, including at the National Magazine Awards, where he’s won five.

Dawn Calleja has held writer and editor positions at Canadian Business, Financial Post Magazine and Report on Business magazine, where she has been a senior editor for more than a decade and has won numerous National Magazine Awards. When she’s not chasing after her two young kids, she leads the Canadian chapter of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, and writes for publications including enRoute, Azure and Today’s Parent.

Elaine Anselmi is the managing editor of Up Here magazine, based in Yellowknife. She got here by way of Dawson Creek, B.C., and before that Toronto. It was an internship and a music festival that sold her on the North.

Elamin Abdelmahmoud is a social media editor for BuzzFeed Canada and editor, news curation with BuzzFeed News. He is a panelist and columnist for CBC News, and he writes a monthly column for Chatelaine. Elamin teaches journalism at Ryerson University in Toronto.

Fadi Yaacoub is the executive creative director, digital, of the Toronto Star, the largest newspaper in Canada. He is a hands-on media design expert with a track record of success at the largest Canadian media corporations. His achievements include establishing design departments, building tablet and mobile news apps, branding television networks, designing prime time newscasts, crafting brand identities, developing go-to-market strategies, creating advertising campaigns, winning awards and hitting numbers. He speaks French, English and Arabic, and currently resides in Toronto, Canada.

Genna Buck is a lifestyle and science reporter at Metro Canada and a frequent contributor to the Toronto Star. With Andrés Plana, she is the co-creator of Metro Science, an innovative and visual science journalism initiative that appears weekly in Metro newspapers across the country. She received the 2015 National Magazine Award for Best New Writer for her piece Autistic and Searching For a Home, an investigative feature in Maisonneuve Magazine about New Brunswick’s institutionalization of people with intellectual disabilities.

As Director, News Content for Globalnews.ca, George Browne is responsible for the daily editorial, development and workflow for Global News digital properties, leading a team of national digital producers in both Toronto, Ottawa and across the country. George has almost a quarter century’s worth of experience working with Global News at the local, national, and digital level. George is also the founding Executive Producer of Global National, helping develop Global’s nightly national newscast into a premier destination for Canadians from coast to coast. George is also a passionate documentary filmmaker and broadcast journalism instructor at Centennial College. He has won more than a dozen national and international awards for his news and documentary work, and has earned five Gemini nominations.

Giorgina Bigoni started her career in beauty on the marketing team for Clinique, way back. She serendipitously made her way into fashion and beauty publishing, first at FLARE magazine. Eventually, she became the publisher of FASHION magazine. She started The Kit in 2010, and soon after sold it to the Star Media Group. She continues to lead The Kit team today. Giorgina oversees the business side of The Kit, and focuses on long-term growth, strategy and making sure that the team is happy.

Haley Cullingham is a senior editor at Hazlitt and Penguin Random House Canada.

Harley Rustad is an editor at The Walrus magazine. He has written for publications including Outside, the Globe and Mail, and Geographical. His first book, Big Lonely Doug, based off a silver National Magazine Award-winning feature in The Walrus, is out September 2018.

Jaclyn Law is a freelance writer and editor in Toronto. Formerly copy chief at Chatelaine and managing editor of Abilities, Jaclyn works with magazines, companies, agencies, non-profit organizations and websites. She is a past-president of the Professional Writers Association of Canada’s Toronto Chapter.

Jacqueline Loch is a communications and media executive specializing in delivering multi-platform content marketing solutions and ROI for audiences and advertisers across print, digital, broadcast and social media. With over 25 years of experience gained at some of Canada’s largest media companies, she works closely with St. Joseph’s largest clients to create innovative and compelling cross-platform content solutions. A recognized leader in content strategy and innovation, Jacquie is Chair of the board of The Content Council in New York and a frequent speaker on branded content solutions across Canada and internationally.

James Baxter is the founding editor and publisher of iPolitics and in his previous life has been an award-winning sportswriter, political journalist, bureau chief and editorial writer. A third-generation public affairs journalist, James’s work covering politics, first in Ottawa and then in Alberta, earned him a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University in 2008, where his studies focused on the future of media businesses and the role of the press in democracy. That led him back to Ottawa, where he conceived of and launched iPolitics in late 2010. James holds degrees in international relations, journalism, and media administration. He lives in Ottawa with his wife, Sarah, three children and a very big dog. When he’s not chasing stories, he coaches football, plays tennis and golf and is an exuberant skier.

Jason Chiu is the creative director of internationally recognized and award-winning projects in editorial, marketing, and broadcasting. He is currently Deputy Head of Visual Journalism at The Globe And Mail.

Jean-François Légaré is the Editor-in-Chief at SID LEE, where he oversees content initiatives for a variety of clients. Previously, Jean-François was the Editor-in-Chief of Air Canada enRoute, where he won numerous editorial awards, including Best inflight magazine in the world from Monocle magazine. He lives in Montreal.

Jean-Philippe Cipriani is a journalist and director of digital content at L’actualité magazine. He can be heard regularly as a columnist on various TV and radio shows in Quebec. He has been a reporter for the Radio-Canada newsroom, the head of digital news at La Presse Canadienne and the head of news at the HuffPost Quebec.

Jennifer Ditchburn is the Ottawa-based Editor-in-Chief of Policy Options magazine, published by the Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP). She was previously a parliamentary correspondent with The Canadian Press and CBC National Television.

Joe Castaldo is a reporter at Maclean’s. Previously, he spent ten years as a writer and editor for Canadian Business magazine. He has won both a Gold and Silver National Magazine Award in Investigative Reporting.

Jordan Timm has been the National Post’s executive producer, news since 2015, overseeing the Post’s newsgathering efforts, coordinating with other Postmedia properties on national stories and playing a key role in the reinvention of the Post’s digital newsroom. He has previously worked as city editor at the Ottawa Citizen and as managing editor at Canadian Business.

Joshua Hatch is a Knight Science Journalism fellow at MIT on leave from the Chronicle of Higher Education and the Chronicle of Philanthropy where he works as assistant managing editor for data and interactives. He served on the board of the Online News Association since 2011 and as president since 2016. Previously interactives director at USA Today, Josh teaches online and data journalism in the graduate journalism program at American University.

Jude Isabella is editor in chief of Hakai Magazine, an online publication that explores coastal science and societies. She writes about science and environment for readers big and small, with sojourns into videography. Next year, Kids Can Press will publish her latest book for kids, which is about the predators and ecology in Yellowstone National Park.

Julie Wolfe works FiveThirtyEight as a visual journalist where she has covered elections, economics and natural disasters — all through data visualizations. She is also an adjunct lecturer at CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism. Before FiveThirtyEight, she worked at The Wall Street Journal, The Globe and Mail and The Toronto Star. She has won several awards, including the 2016 Statistical Society of Canada’s Excellence in Data Journalism Award and a 2015 SND award of excellence for digital design. You can follow her on twitter at @juruwolfe.

Born in Toronto and based in Fredericton, Karen Pinchin writes about the economics, science, history, and culture of food systems and producers for magazines and newspapers across Canada and the United States. A trained cook and longtime freelance journalist, she is currently working on a book about Atlantic seafood.

Katie Engelhart is a journalist based in New York City. She works as a Reporter and Producer for NBC Left Field: a new documentary film unit at NBC News. She is also a Fellow at New America in Washington D.C, and is writing a non-fiction book for Saint Martin’s Press, Macmillan (2019). She was formerly a London-based Correspondent for VICE News and a writer for Maclean’s. Her reporting has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, The New Republic, BBC History and other publications. Katie is the winner of numerous journalism awards, including the Canada National Magazine Award. @katieengelhart

Kirstine Stewart is TribalScale’s President and CRO. She is a top-tier executive responsible for TribalScale’s continued growth and international expansion. She leads TribalScale’s revenue and sales strategies, and operations, while actively fostering collaboration and innovation amongst the Tribe, and its partners in mobile, AI, and voice tech. Kirstine brings revolutionary and diverse ideas to TribalScale, contributes to our leadership thinking, and inspires at all levels of the organization. Kirstine earned her BA from the University of Toronto, graduated from the Harvard Kennedy School’s Global Leadership in the 21st Century Program, as well as the University of Oxford’s Transformational Leadership Program. She sits on the board of Kognitiv, the Score, and WOW Entertainment, she is also a member of the DMZ Advisory Council, and a mentor for theBIGPush, #MoveTheDial, and TechStars. Kirstine’s book Our Turn, published by Random House in 2015, is a best-seller geared towards women in leadership in today’s world.

Kunal Gupta is the Founder & CEO of Polar, a technology platform provider whose mission is to enable a business model for premium content. Polar’s partners include major global publishers and the business is headquartered in Toronto with offices in New York, London and Sydney. Kunal is passionate about finding calm and focus in a modern era. Kunal is on the board for CAMH, Canada’s leading mental health hospital and research organization. He writes regularly on the topics of leadership, mindfulness and technology culture on his blog at findfocus.today. You can connect with him on LinkedIn.

Laura Osborne is the Editor-in-Chief of the award-winning Ricardo magazines, the number one magazine in Quebec and Canada’s only cooking magazine. Before joining the RICARDO team, Laura worked at Spafax — where she served as the Senior Editor of Air Canada’s enRoute magazine — among other publications including Maisonneuve magazine.

Lauren Cheal is the Audience Development Manager at ECHO Storytelling, and co-founder of The Pop Culture Reference. She previously served as Circulation Manager and Digital Marketing Director for Modern Dog and Modern Cat magazines. With an MA in Mass Communication and a Masters of Publishing (MPUB), Lauren has extensive experience in evaluating storytelling through popular media. She has produced 3 podcasts of her own about popular culture, including an upcoming series on the NBC TV show Frasier called Café Nervosa.

Lauren McKeon is a national award-winning editor and writer. She is the current digital editor at The Walrus and the former editor of This Magazine, as well as a contributing editor at Toronto Life. Her writing has appeared in various publications, including the Walrus, Hazlitt, Flare, Reader’s Digest, and Best Canadian Essays 2017. Her first book, F-Bomb: Dispatches from the War on Feminism, is out now. In addition to writing and editing, she has also taught long-form journalism at Humber College. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Non-Fiction from the University of King’s College.

Laurie Few is a journalist with 28 years experience producing news and current affairs. She currently holds the title of Director of Digital and Creative Content at Cable and Public Affairs channel, CPAC. Before joining CPAC she was the Executive Producer of the award-winning, multi-platform national news and current affairs show, 16×9, airing on Global television. Laurie’s exacting standards and visual production sense created a strong brand identity that was recognized with multiple industry awards including the Canadian Screen Award for Best News and Information Series in 2016. Prior to 16×9 Laurie was an investigative producer for CTV’s long-running news and current affairs show, W5 and the producer of the investigative segment Goldhawk Fights Back airing on CTV national news. Laurie taught investigative journalism at Sheridan College. Laurie was a lawyer prior to becoming a journalist.

Leata Lekushoff is the senior editor at the award-winning Professionally Speaking magazine. She brings more than 10 years of experience in publishing, as well as a background in film, video and photography.

Originally intent on a career in interior design, Line Atallah fell in love with the web and brought her creative eye to the digital world, first as a designer and creative director, then as a marketing strategist. From driving force for technology startups to subject matter expert for major lifestyle brands, Line has influenced and guided digital marketing success across a broad range of industries and media. With her extensive experience in digital publishing, Line has both a high-level strategic view and a detailed appreciation of production. Today, she is Vice-President, Marketing for Montreal AI technology provider Keatext.

Liz Harmer’s essays, stories, and reviews have been published widely, in journals like The New Quarterly, Hazlitt, The Malahat Review and elsewhere. She has been three times nominated for National Magazine Awards and won gold for Personal Essay in 2014. Her debut novel, The Amateurs, is soon to be published with Knopf.

As Head of Visual Journalism at The Globe and Mail, Matt Frehner leads a cross-disciplinary team of editors, designers, developers, photographers, videographers and graphic artists. His team tells stories across all platforms – from breaking news to in-depth features and investigations.

Matthew McKinnon is an award-winning editor, writer, developer, and designer based in Toronto. He was recently the editorial director of Passport 2017, a sesquicentennial project produced by St. Joseph Media, and is currently doing similar work for SJM’s Strategic Content Labs.

Monica C. Corcoran is an award-winning editorial director, community builder, and digital strategist with over 20 years experience in visual storytelling. She was most recently the founding director of Your Shot—National Geographic’s photo community—which grew to nearly 900 thousand members and over eight million images under her leadership. Prior to joining National Geographic, she spent 11 years at U.S. News & World Report magazine, where she started as an intern and left as the senior photo editor for the Money & Business section.

Navneet Alang is a technology and culture writer based in Toronto. He is currently the technology columnist for The Week, a Contributing Editor at both Hazlitt and Real Life Magazine, and his work has appeared in The Atlantic, The Globe and Mail, New Republic, Macleans and more.

Reporter au magazine L’actualité depuis 2010, Noémi Mercier se spécialise dans les grands reportages et les portraits. Son enquête sur les crimes sexuels dans les Forces armées canadiennes a provoqué d’importantes réformes au sein de l’organisation et lui a valu plusieurs distinctions. Elle s’intéresse de près aux enjeux liés au genre et aux inégalités entre les hommes et les femmes, qu’elle décortique tous les mois dans sa chronique « Des gars, des filles ». Elle est régulièrement de passage à la télé et à la radio, notamment à l’émission Dans les médias, à Télé-Québec, où elle pose son regard aiguisé sur le monde de l’information, et à Plus on est de fous, plus on lit! à ICI Radio-Canada Première. Noémi Mercier a récolté de nombreux prix de journalisme, dont cinq médailles d’or aux Prix du magazine canadien, trois prix Judith-Jasmin et des nominations aux Prix Michener et Albert-Londres.

Pary Bell has been a digital leader in Canada helping traditional media companies navigate digital transformations to embrace new audience platforms and business plans. Most recently, as the head of Digital for Rogers Media, he established and drove the digital strategy for the large Canadian media company. He oversaw the creation of hundreds of innovative digital products and generated net-new revenue streams and business models. As President of Digital Media for CanWest Broadcasting, he was responsible for the digital growth of high profile brands including Global Television, the Food Network, HGTV, History Television, E!, Showcase and Slice. He also served as Vice President of Digital Content for Alliance Atlantis Communications, and, prior to that, he led the Children’s and Youth Interactive Division at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Bell studied at Queen’s University, UBC, and has a BFA from the Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver.

Philip Preville is a freelance writer based in Peterborough. His work appears regularly in Toronto Life, Cottage Life and other publications. He is a winner of two National Magazine Awards, including the 2016 award in the Science, Technology and the Environment.

Philippe Gohier is the editor-in-chief of VICE Québec, which was launched in Montreal in the summer of 2016. Prior to joining VICE, Philippe served as a digital editor at L’actualité and Maclean’s. His first-ever journalism gig was writing Maisonneuve’s dearly-missed Mediascout newsletter.

Pierre Kattar is a video journalist and documentary filmmaker. He started at The Washington Post’s website in 1999 where he produced video news stories and short documentaries. He left the Post in 2010 and now works as an independent filmmaker. Born in Beirut, Lebanon, he grew up in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Kattar graduated from DePaul University with an International Studies degree focusing on gender, power and race. He now lives in Rome, Italy.

Rachelle McDuff has been working for the Journal de Montréal as Assistant Director of Information for two months. Before that, she worked for eight years at the Montreal Metro newspaper where she has been a web journalist, news director and until recently editor-in-chief. She also worked for almost two years at the radio of Radio-Canada.

Rebecca Eckler is the Executive Editor of Savvymom.ca. She was a columnist at the National Post, The Globe and Mail, and a contributing editor at Maclean’s Magazine. She is the author of nine books and her work has been published on numerous websites across North America, including the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. She is presently working on her tenth book about Blended families. She won best blogger in 2017 for the Canadian on-line publishing Awards. She lives with her two children in Toronto.

Roger LeMoyne studied film and Music at Concordia University in Montreal, toured Canada with a band and worked in film and music before turning to photography. Since the 1990’s, he has been documenting the human condition, conflict, human rights issues and international aid in the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe. His images have garnered more than 50 awards internationally, including a National Magazine Award in 2014, the Michener-Deacon Fellowship in 2013, A Canada Council for the Arts Grant in 2013, a Quebec Arts Council grant in 2009, the Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize (Duke University)  in 2007, and the “World Understanding Award” from POYi (Missouri School of Journalism) in 2006. His work has been nominated for 15 National Magazine Awards and has appeared in Communication Arts Photography Annual 7 times. A freelancer his entire career, his pictures are distributed by Getty Images and Redux Pictures of New York. He lives in Montreal with his wife, a physician, and their two children.

Saleem Khan is a digital news pioneer, journalist, media trainer and consultant with diverse management experience, and a passion for the public interest.

Shiraz Janjua is a writer and producer based in Toronto. His recent work includes an interactive documentary with the National Film Board of Canada. He previously won a Peabody Award with the public-radio program Speaking of Faith.

Steve Ladurantaye is a managing editor at the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., where he’s responsible for restructuring and leading the country’s No. 1 source of online news and helping to increase the reach of the broadcaster’s news programs. While at Twitter, he worked with newsrooms around the world on content strategy in his role as global chair for news and helped heads of state all over the world utilize the platform to reach constituents. He’s the winner of two National Newspaper Awards (and one-time loser) for his reporting and writing, and his CBC digital news team built and won the Top News Website in Canada in 2018.

Susan Nerberg is a journalist based in Montreal. After an eight-year stint as the deputy editor of enRoute magazine and, prior to that, working as senior editor at Azure, she’s now a freelance writer (and sometime-editor, because there are bills to pay), switching gears from producing travel and lifestyle content to reporting on the environment, human rights, nature, and architecture and urban issues. When she’s not too comfy reading a good book or magazine, you can find her outdoors — hiking, climbing, skiing, biking, or poking around in her tiny Montreal backyard garden.

Taylor Shute is a Toronto based Art Director with almost a decade of experience creating and presenting content for a number of acclaimed publications and brands such as Toronto Star, Maclean’s, Cottage Life and Eye Weekly.

Tom Henheffer is a consultant with expertise in digital media, government relations, team-building and strategic development, as well as a human rights advocate, former journalist and entrepreneur. Tom was formerly Director of News and Digital at VICE Canada and Executive Director of Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, an organization that’s been protecting the right to free expression in Canada and around the world for more than 30 years. As a journalist, Tom worked on everything from reporting on serial killers, to resource extraction and the Toronto International Film Festival. He’s also launched numerous digital and print products including Canada’s first national Web TV program, Macleans.TV and the Toronto Star’s Small Business Section and Star Business Club. A former videographer and small business owner, Tom has also designed, patented and licensed innovative products for shooting video with digital SLRs. Tom is a board member at Canadian Journalists for Free Expression and Ryerson University’s Centre for Free Expression, a member of the Ontario Anti-Racism Directorate’s subcommittee on Anti-Semitism, a Juror at the Canadian Screen Awards, and a judge for the Digital Publishing Awards, Ali Mustapha Memorial Award, and Grace-Pepin Access to Information Award.

Vanessa Milne is a writer who specializes in evidence-based health articles and parenting pieces. Before becoming a writer, she was an editor at Healthy Debate, The Toronto Star and Chatelaine.

Xavier Kronström Richard works at CBC/Radio-Canada as the coordinator of digital innovation. He holds a master’s degree in scientific journalism at the Denis-Diderot University (Paris), and is particularly interested in R&D, innovation and creativity processes of the media industry. (Credits: Cindy Boyce.)

Finalists & Winners

The 2018 nominees will be announced on Thursday, April 26, 2018 at 10am EST. Follow us on Twitter (@DPAwards) or at digitalpublishing.blog for the most up-to-date news.

The Digital Publishing Awards soirée will celebrate the winners on Tuesday, May 29, 2018 in Toronto. Details to follow.