Durham College (DC) students and alumni from the Journalism – Mass Media program won big this year at the Ontario Community Newspaper Association’s (OCNA) Better Newspaper Competition (BNC), an annual competition that recognizes the outstanding work produced by the OCNA’s member newspapers.

Taking first place once again in the General Excellence – College/University category, DC’s student-produced campus newspaper The Chronicle was praised for its professionalism, photography and layout, as well as its “solid stories and editorial”.  Durham also finished third in Best College/University Newspaper Website category.

Four DC alumni were also honoured for their stories, three of whom placed first, including Sam Odrowski (Fort Frances Times) in the Best Business and Finance Story category, Sarah Hyatt (Northumberland News) in the Best Rural Story (circulation over 10,000) category, and Reka Szekely (Oshawa This Week) in the Best Feature News Series (circulation over 10,000) category. Additionally, alumnus Chad Ingram (Minden Times) placed third in the Best News Story (circulation under 9,999) category.

DC’s journalism program was introduced more than 40 years ago and since then, our students and graduates have won dozens of OCNA awards, including the student-produced news publication The Chronicle, which finished first last year in the General Excellence Newspaper – College/University category and second in the Best College/University Newspaper Website category.

The OCNA is a non-profit industry association focused on helping community newspapers prosper by promoting and enhancing the image of the industry among readers.

Congratulations to DC’s Journalism – Mass Media students and alumni on this recognition of their hard work and dedication to their craft.