North Island Gazette editor Tyson Whitney won gold at the British Columbia and Yukon Community Newspaper Association (BCYCNA) Ma Murray awards show on April 20, which was held this year in North Vancouver.
Whitney was nominated in the feature series category for his extensive coverage of the North Island’s ongoing hospital closures, and he definitely was up against some very tough competition. The Williams Lake Tribune’s Ruth Lloyd and the Goldstream News Gazette’s Cathy Webster and team were the other two nominees in the category.
“It was a nice honour to be recognized for my reporting, let alone win,” said Whitney, who noted he had to put in a lot of extra hours over the past year covering all of the various hospital closures, and he unfortunately had to deal with “a lot of anger and outrage that was coming at me from both sides of the issue.”
Whitney thanked senior editors John McKinley, Alistair Taylor and Terry Farrell for all their guidance over the nearly 10 years he’s been employed at Black Press.
“Without senior editors like John, Alistair and Terry leading the way, younger journalists like myself wouldn’t have the proper guidance needed to excel at their craft,” added Whitney. “Senior editors deserve to be recognized for all of their efforts.”
The Ma Murray awards recognize excellence in advertising, writing and photography as well as special publications as created by community news organizations around British Columbia and Yukon.
Margaret “Ma” Murray was a Canadian newspaper editor, publisher and columnist, as well as an Order of Canada officer. She built a legendary reputation running newspapers in British Columbia’s northeast with a spicy wit, rural wisdom and strong opinions. Her editorials were often signed off with the phrase “And that’s fer damshur!”