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Yukon News wins six top prizes at Ma Murray Community Newspaper Awards

The Yukon News cleaned up at this year's Ma Murray Community Newspaper Awards, taking home six top honours from the awards banquet held in Vancouver on Saturday.

The Yukon News cleaned up at this year’s Ma Murray Community Newspaper Awards, taking home six top honours from the awards banquet held in Vancouver on Saturday. That includes a first-place award for best overall newspaper in our circulation class.

“A beautiful and unique front page, spectacular photography throughout, and delightful community news reporting,” the judge wrote. “The sports and recreation reporting is at a high standard with excellent use of photographs to add value to the stories. The overall appearance and design is absolutely first class. An excellent, engaging newspaper.”

Maura Forrest won a business writing award for her reporting on the economic fall-out from Wolverine mine’s messy closure. Joel Krahn took home two awards for his photography. He won best colour feature photo for a shot of a bonfire burning with the northern lights glowing in the background. And he won best portrait photo for his shot of Elmer David Jackson, a participant at Teslin’s traditional snowshoe-making course.

Peter Mather won best photo essay for the spectacular photos he captured while visiting Shingle Point on the Beaufort Sea.

And Wyatt Tremblay won best editorial cartoon for his May 2015 drawing that cheekily suggests the mining industry could improve its public image by piggybacking on the popularity of the newest British royal, Princess Charlotte.

As well, Krahn received what the judge called “a very close second” in the photo essay category for his photos at Teslin’s summer celebration of Tlingit culture. He also received a second-place prize for best spot news photo, for his shot of a family grieving the unsolved murder of their father in the McIntyre subdivision.

Tom Patrick placed second for best sports photo for his creative use of a GoPro camera to capture a shot of two racers as seen from inside of an orienteering control point. Patrick also placed third for best colour feature photo for his picture of a girl dangling from a trapeze at the Atlin music festival.

And Forrest received a third-place prize for arts writing for her piece on Michel Gignac’s art installation inspired by his experiences working as a hunting outfitter.