[Professional Blog] AJA Finalists

A small crowd of print, radio and TV journalists in this province are finalists for the 2007 Atlantic Journalism Awards (AJA).

The awards will be presented in a gala ceremony, May 3 in Halifax.

One finalist in each category will be honoured as the overall Gold Award winner. However, everyone's a winner, as all finalists are recognized for their achievement with a framed AJAs Certificate of Excellence in Journalism.

CBC in this province is guaranteed to win at least one award, as they've swept all three nominations in the Continuing Coverage Radio category. I received a note this week from John Gushue, directing me to a CBC link that compiles all the nominations, with video and audio, so that you can see and hear the finalists for yourself. (CBC journalist Kathryn King gets credit for compiling this page.)

This is a tremendous idea and something that all journalism awards organizers should take to heart. Why not prepare a multimedia compilation of all nominated pieces, using audio and video clips and print scans? If that's too much work, they could prepare at the very least a compilation of the winners' work.

Yes, it would take considerable effort and a larger budget, but the result would be highly entertaining not to mention a useful learning tool for journalists. It would also generate more traffic to awards web sites, which certainly could offer more than a list of names.

Congratulations are also extended to Paul Daly, world-class photographer with The Independent, who is up for a Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) Award. Daly is a finalist in the Photojournalism category.

The list of AJA finalists from this province is presented below.

Spot News Television

CBC Television Newsroom, St. John's - Field Street Fire

Doug Greer, CBC Television, Corner Brook Landslide

Enterprise Reporting - Print

Rob Antle - The Telegram, St. John's - System Failure

Continuing Coverage - Radio

Paul Pigott - CBC Radio, St. John's - Naked in Cells

Lee Pitts - CBC Radio, St. John's - Nautical Legacy Rescue

Mark Quinn - CBC Radio, St. John's - Flawed Cancer Tests

Atlantic Magazine - Best Article

Alec Bruce - Atlantic Business Magazine, St. John's - Big Deal

Alec Bruce/Marjorie Doyle/Chris Flanagan/Pauline Furlong/Jack MacAndrew - Atlantic Business Magazine, St. John's - Leaders and Legends

Atlantic Magazine - Best Profile Article

Eleanor Beaton - Atlantic Business Magazine, St. John's - What's Up with Mickey?

Sports Reporting

Robin Short - The Telegram, St. John's - Gushue Team Break-up

VideoJournalist

Doug Greer - CBC Television, Corner Brook - Show of Work

Spot News Photojournalism - Television

Doug Greer - CBC Television, Corner Brook Landslide

Feature Photojournalism - Television

Bart Fraize - NTV, St. John's - Moose Trapped in Well