Each year in the middle of the summer a major event in the agricultural journalism world takes place, the American Agricultural Editors’ Association awards. While some staff from your Western Producer usually attend the event, this year we could only wait to hear.
The writers, editors and designers in the industry enter their best stuff and peer-judges provide their assessments of how well we have done for our readers each year. They also provide detailed feedback on the entries, allowing us to consider what we could do to improve what we produce for you.
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This year we netted a few AAEA awards, of which we are very proud.
For his blog on producer.com, Ed White of our Winnipeg bureau placed second for his opinion piece, Percy and Me. Ed reviewed his coverage and writer/subject relationship with controversial Saskatchewan farmer Percy Schmeiser after a feature film was released last season.
From our Saskatoon office, reporter William DeKay also placed second in the Human Interest writing category. Bill won for his feature entitled Old elevator ready to rock. A band, aptly named Fusarium, has been using a semi-retired wooden crib elevator, the last one in Asquith, Sask., for their practice and development space. Bill captured both the appeal of the facility and its new use in a feature story last December.
Michelle Houlden, our Art Director and visual journalist, had a banner year with a long list of awards. She swept the Overall Magazine Design category’s top three for our Saskatchewan Seed Guide, Yield Saskatchewan and GrowPro magazines.
For a cover on the Western Producer dealing with the costs of carbon taxes on the farm, Carbon Crunch, she placed second in Cover Page Design. Also for your paper she won second place for Single Page Editorial design for her visual take on Sustainability Focus May Benefit Canola.
Her two-page design for a feature on senior producers headed south for the winter, Snowbirds Get Their Wings Clipped, also garnered a second.
For our Issue 52 edition about the effects of COVID-19 on the farm she won second for the Overall Design of Special Issues and another second for Best Use of Chart and Graph Material for an explanation of How the Omniprocessor Works.
A third was awarded to Houlden for our annual harvest photo feature, that this year was made up entirely of your photography.
We are very proud of our folks.
