The Voice/PelhamToday is a finalist for seven awards in the annual Better Newspaper Competition, run by the Ontario Community Newspaper Association (OCNA). The yearly competition seeks to recognize and honour excellence in local journalism.
The weekly Voice of Pelham distributed its last print edition in December, launching its new daily news site, PelhamToday, in early January.
This year's seven finalist categories include Best Editorial, Best Feature Writing, Best Investigative News Story, Best Feature/News Series, Best Diversity Coverage, Best Police/Court Story or Series, and Best Guest/Freelance Column.
PelhamToday won't know until the awards ceremony in April whether it will take home gold, silver, or bronze for five of the categories, while OCNA has already announced that honourable mentions have been awarded for the Best Diversity Coverage and Best Guest/Freelance Column categories.
In 2018 the paper was up for one award—taking Best Investigative News Story for reporting on the Town of Pelham's land-for-credits scheme in East Fonthill. In 2019 the paper won four awards. In 2020, six awards. In 2021, another six. In 2022, nine, which was the third-highest total that year for any newspaper in competition.
PelhamToday editor Dave Burket says that this success was built on the work of many contributors, including Don Rickers, John Chick, Helen Tran, Brian Green, and—coming full circle from when she edited the Voice in its earliest days—Carolyn Mullin. Each is a named winner in this year's competition.
"I am deeply appreciative of the effort that our team has put in for several years now," says Burket, "and that their work is being recognized by their peers."
