Presented on June 21, the award recognizes general excellence and is presented annually by the Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada. In being named the CPA’s best national newspaper, The Register broke a string of 13 consecutive first-place honours by this year’s runner-up, the National Catholic Reporter of Kansas City.
“This is an outstanding achievement and is a recognition of the outstanding work of The Register’s entire staff,” said Publisher and Editor Jim O’Leary.
The Register’s staff won a total of four first-place awards, one second place and one third, and also received three honourable mentions. The Foley Award was the final prize handed out at the CPA’s awards banquet.
The judges praised The Register for a “fresh and dynamic” approach that is carried through from its front page through to its editorial pages that “coupled with fine writing makes this a winner.”
“Story selection and appealing headlines plus good captions fill out the quality of editing,” the judges said.
In addition to being named the top newspaper, The Register took three other first-place awards: Michael Coren for column writing in the category of general commentary, Bronwyn Lawrie, a Youth Speak News reporter, for best reporting on a special age group (teenagers), and The Register staff in the category of best seasonal issue for its Christmas edition.
Coren was lauded for columns that are “balanced, succinct, clean, measured writing” with “broad vantages and great depth.”
The win by Lawrie, who was a university student when she penned her columns, was a feather in the cap for The Register’s youth mentoring program, YSN. She was praised for combining news and opinion writing that produced “youth articles and insights to get youth reading.”
The Register’s associate editor Michael Swan won second place in the category of photo illustration, while art director Lucy Barco placed third in the category of information graphics.
Barco also received an honourable mention for front-page design. The Register’s other two honourable mentions were for editorial writing and for its special supplement about the canonization of St. Kateri Tekakwitha.