The Battlefords Regional Optimist came away from the weekend's Saskatchewan Weekly Newspapers Association convention with six more awards to hang in the foyer of the Battlefords Publishing building.
"These awards affirm what we are striving to do each and every week and that is to provide readers of our publications with high quality journalism, reflecting the people, events and stories in our communities," said Editor Becky Doig Monday.
The Regional Optimist was nominated in six categories of the 2014 Better Newspapers Competition, taking two firsts, two seconds and three thirds at the awards ceremony Saturday in Saskatoon
Former sports reporter Sean Macey, who recently returned to his hometown of Bowmanville, Ont., was named as the first place winner for Best Sports Story for his Oct. 3, 2013 wrap up of Andrew Albers' major league baseball season.
Reporter Jayne Foster was awarded first place for Best Educational Coverage K-12 for a variety of stories including a May 23, 2013 story, Finding Treaty Within Ourselves, a story about closing the achievement gap between First Nations students and non-First Nations students.
Reporter John Cairns, along with Foster, were awarded second place in the Best Health/Healthcare Coverage for their stories about the process of designing a new Saskatchewan Hospital.
Cairns was also awarded third place in the Best Educational Coverage Post Secondary category for his coverage of the opening of the Atoskewin Success Centre, published in the Oct. 1 News-Optimist.
The Regional Optimist was also named as second place winner of the Best Editorial Page Class E category.
While Doig congratulated her reporters, she also gave credit to all the people involved in the production of both the News-Optimist and the Regional Optimist.
"We have a highly skilled team, not just in the newsroom, but throughout Battlefords Publishing," she said.
Publisher Alana Schweitzer said, "Each and every year our team of reporters and sales staff strive to report and place advertisements that promote our community and businesses. Again at the SWNA convention, we have gained recognition for our efforts and expertise in the field of communications."
She added, "I would like to thank all the staff for their hard work and expertise in promoting our community and newspaper in a positive way."
