The 2nd annual Digital Publishing Awards was a night to remember. To all the amazing contributors, sponsors, partners, staff and everyone else who helped to make the 2017 Digital Publishing Awards a grand success, thank you! You helped to make this year’s awards a memorable celebration of Canada’s best digital creators.
Thank you Evan Munday for hosting the awards show presentation. Your wit and charm permeated the entire room.
Special thanks to Candescent for designing and building the Digital Publishing Awards show presentation.
Many thanks to Very Good Studios for creating this year’s Digital Publishing bumper video.
A huge thank you to our judges — the 67 individuals who generously volunteered their time and lent their expertise to this year’s awards. They represent the crux of the entire awards program; without them the Digital Publishing Awards are not possible.
Thank you to our wonderful staff and our Board of Directors for their hard work and guidance.
Thank you to Steven Goetz, our event photographer for this year’s Digital Publishing Awards. Check out the 2017 DPA photo gallery on our Facebook Page.
Many thanks to all the guests who attended Thursday’s celebration. We hope that you enjoyed the evening as much as we did! [Event Photo Album]
Lastly, a huge thank you to all the participants, nominees & winners of this year’s Digital Publishing Awards. Thank you for being a part of the 2nd annual DPAs, and we look forward to welcoming you back in 2018.
The award is the highest individual honour of the Digital Publishing Awards, and was the first award presented on Thursday night. Presented by HuffPost Canada colleague Andree Lau, Kenny Yum was called on-stage to accept his award, amidst enthusiastic cheers from the audience. His acceptance speech captivated the room, which was filled with many of Canada’s best digital creators.
His words resonated with the digital publishing community, and we are happy to share those remarks with you here.
Kenny Yum’s Digital Publishing Leadership Award Acceptance Speech:
“Thank you to the Digital Publishing Awards. I’m thrilled we have a way we can recognize our industry’s great work. Thank you to my colleagues, past and current, who nominated me for this honour.
My greatest success is that I get to stand behind the amazing work people like you do every day.
No matter what position you hold in digital, you know by now that it’s always moving. And that makes it all the more exciting. My advice:
Be passionate about the stories you want to tell, and be open to how you can tell them. There are so many gaps that need covering, you can fill that void.
Be open to learning something you don’t know. My challenge at the tender age of 42 is to treat every day as if I’m stepping into a new newsroom with new possibilities.
Be a leader, wherever you are. We used to look at our colleagues in the U.S. or Europe for innovations, but I know now that there is excellent work and done right here. The longer I’ve worked with editors across the globe, I realize we bring a lot to the table. Lead so they notice. Lead with confidence. And don’t say sorry.
Be mindful of the noise, and don’t succumb to it. There are those who like to talk about the future of journalism, and there is a temptation to be paralyzed by it. There are also those who are doing journalism. You are the doers. Carry on.
Be surrounded by good people. We are lucky in digital. I feel like sometimes we’re the nerds who the rest of the world just realized now we’re kinda cool. Hire these people, let their ideas shine, let their voices dictate your sked and if you’re not working at a place that doesn’t do all of the above, go find somewhere where that’s happening or make it happen where you are.
Finally, use digital as an opportunity to listen and reflect. For far too long journalists have proposed that they have all the ideas, but now there is no excuse. Listen to the reader, the viewer, the audience. Listen enough that you truly hear. Then go out there and tell more stories.”
Read more about Kenny Yum receiving the Digital Publishing Leadership Award.
For more information on how to nominate an individual for the Digital Publishing Leadership Award, please contact info@digitalpublishingawards.ca.
The NMAF presented Gold and Silver awards in 21 categories at this year’s Digital Publishing Awards Soirée, held at The Spoke Club on Thursday June 1 in Toronto’s King West district and hosted by author and illustrator Evan Munday.
GENERAL EXCELLENCE IN DIGITAL PUBLISHING This year the award for General Excellence in Digital Publishing was presented in two divisions: small publications & large publications.
Canadian Art won the Gold Medal for General Excellence in Digital Publishing: Small Publications.
“The originality and the creativity of the article subjects is striking,” said the Digital Publishing Awards jury. “Making a magazine that’s both dense and approachable is what every editor hopes to achieve, and Canadian Art has succeeded where a lot of us fall short.”
Honourable Mention in General Excellence in Digital Publishing: Small Publications was awarded to Hakai Magazine, LiisBeth, National Observer, Toronto Life and YMC: Motherhood Unfiltered.
CBC News won the Gold Medal for General Excellence in Digital Publishing: Large Publications.
The CBC News team won 3 other Gold Medals in Best News Coverage: Local & Provincial, Best Online Video: Short and Best Service Feature: Family, Health & Careers.
“CBC News represents a high-water mark for digital publishing in Canada,” remarked the Digital Publishing Awards jury. “Outstanding writing is backed up with photography, video and interactive assets across a breadth of topics that matter to Canadians. The team at CBC News continues a great tradition of producing a site that not only leads its peers in Canada, but stands comfortably with any news organization in the world.”
Honourable Mention in General Excellence in Digital Publishing: Large Publications was awarded to The Globe and Mail.
EMERGING EXCELLENCE AWARD
Naël Shiab, L’actualité
Naël Shiab of L’actualitéwas named this year’s recipient of the Emerging Excellence Award. The award honours an individual whose early work in Canadian digital publishing shows the highest degree of craft and promise.
According to the Emerging Excellence Award jury:
“Naël Shiab is a bright light shining across the world of journalism. He combines the inquisitiveness and skepticism of a journalist with the creativity and three-dimensional thinking of a coder to create astonishing data-led work that illuminates and educates and entertains. He is the future of journalism and the more Naël Shiab’s at work, the better off we are as an informed citizenry.”
DIGITAL PUBLISHING LEADERSHIP AWARD
The Digital Publishing Leadership Award was presented to Kenny Yum, managing editor of HuffPost Canada. The award honours an individual whose career contributions to Canadian digital publishing deserve recognition and celebration and was presented on stage by HuffPost Canada colleague, Andree Lau.
“Kenny Yum is the kind of journalistic leader who represents everything that’s exciting and worthwhile in our industry. Long before digital media was a priority for most places, Kenny was already working on merging high-quality Canadian journalism with innovative formats to connect intimately with audiences. After roles at The Globe and Mail, National Post, Financial Post and CBC, Kenny helped launched HuffPost Canada six years ago. There, he’s built one of the country’s youngest, most culturally diverse newsrooms, where he challenges us to strive for excellence and innovation every day.” – Andree Lau, Managing Editor of News at HuffPost Canada
WINNERS HIGHLIGHTS 16 different publications received Digital Publishing Awards this year, including 10 publications which received their first-ever award.
The Globe and Mail’s “Crichton Farm” story won Gold in two categories: Best Feature Article: Short and Best Social Storytelling.
Toronto Life won the Gold Medal in Best Digital Design for the second year in a row.
The leading publication in this year’s Digital Publishing Awards is The Globe and Mail, winning a total of 12 awards, including 8 Gold and 4 Silver. They also received Honourable Mention in General Excellence in Digital Publishing: Large Publications.
This year, the Digital Publishing Awards expanded from 14 to 21 categories to better reflect the growth, innovation, and diversity in Canadian digital publishing content and creation. A total of 75 Canadian digital publications participated in the DPAs, submitting the best of their digital content, design and innovation from the past year for consideration in 21 awards categories. 67 individuals volunteered their time, their expertise, and their passion for digital publishing in serving as judges for this year’s awards. They nominated 85 entries from 34 different digital publications for this year’s awards.
The NMAF offers its sincere thanks to the highly skilled professionals who generously contributed their time and expertise as judges of the Digital Publishing Awards competition.
The award for Best Blog or Online-Only Column honours the blog or online-only column that best serves its intended audience through commentary, opinion, visual, audio, and/or interactive elements.
Judges for this award considered the overall quality of the storytelling and presentation, as well as functionality, user experience and overall impact. This year, our jury has nominated 7 standout blogs or columns.
The winners of the Best Blog or Online-Only Column award will be announced at the Digital Publishing Awards Soirée on Thursday June 1, 2017 in Toronto. Join us!
Online videos have become ubiquitous in digital publishing, and rightfully so. They reach both new and existing audiences, while managing to keep those audiences captivated for a designated length of time. Videos are often easy to access, easy to watch, and very easily sharable, something digital publishers continue to strive for.
Sometimes, creating a short, succinct, punchy video in under two minutes can be challenging, but the 3 finalists in Best Online Video: Short skillfully produced engaging, interesting and informative videos, all under 120 seconds.
In this year’s Digital Publishing Awards, we split the award for Best Online Video into 3 divisions: short, feature & mini-doc. The jury for Best Online Video: Short has nominated three outstanding videos.
We invite you to add another tally to their views, and review this year’s nominees:
Leah Rumack & Kathryn Hayward, Producers Contributors: Sun Ngo, Andrew Kolb, Steven Gircys, Jamie Piper
The winners of the Best Online Video: Short award will be announced at the Digital Publishing Awards Soirée on Thursday June 1, 2017 in Toronto. Join us!
Thank you Evan Munday for hosting the awards show presentation. Your wit and charm permeated the entire room.
The award is the highest individual honour of the Digital Publishing Awards, and was the first award presented on Thursday night. Presented by HuffPost Canada colleague Andree Lau, Kenny Yum was called on-stage to accept his award, amidst enthusiastic cheers from the audience. His acceptance speech captivated the room, which was filled with many of Canada’s best digital creators.
The Digital Publishing Leadership Award was presented to Kenny Yum, managing editor of HuffPost Canada. The award honours an individual whose career contributions to Canadian digital publishing deserve recognition and celebration and was presented on stage by HuffPost Canada colleague, Andree Lau.
This year, the 
