“Hopelessness sticks to these grainy black-and-white photographs like grit at the back of your throat on a dusty day.”
So begins a story entitled Dirty Thirties: fact and myth, written by Western Producer copy editor Bruce Dyck. The story won the gold award in the press feature category of the 2006 Canadian Farm Writers Federation annual writing and photography awards. It was one of nine awards won by Western Producer reporters and photographers this year.
The beginning of Dyck’s winning story figures prominently here because most of the newspaper’s staffers just took in a writing and editing workshop where the writing of beginnings, known as leads in newspaper jargon, was part of the instruction.
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Here is the lead from Saskatoon reporter Sean Pratt’s story that won silver in the weekly press reporting category of the awards: “Mervin Slater wants farmers to participate in what has become a thriving energy sector in this eastern Saskatchewan community.” That lead drew many readers into a story about ethanol and how the American experience compares to Canada’s.
Calgary reporter Barbara Duckworth used a no-nonsense lead on her story that won the bronze award for weekly news reporting. It was about landowners and the gas industry: “A landowners group in southern Alberta wants a pause in the province’s booming natural gas drilling industry until all environmental implications are mapped.”
Good leads are also important on columns. Here’s how Ottawa bureau
news reporter Barry Wilson phrased the introduction on his silver-award-winning column about the difficulties in covering some aspects of agricultural reporting: “It’s confession time. Media, including The Western Producer, are doing a one-sided job of covering the farm income story.”
As for our other awards, the Producer website at www.producer.com won the gold award in the website category, where Paul Yanko puts in his daily efforts.
There were also four photo award winners. Saskatoon reporter Karen Morrison won silver in feature photograph for a picture of an owl.
Brandon reporter Ian Bell won silver in the news photograph category for a sunset harvest shot of Virgil and Calvert Reynolds, taken last year near Leslie, Sask.
Saskatoon reporter and photographer Mike Raine won the bronze award in both of the above noted categories. In features, a shot of the YaHa Tinda Ranch manager, taken near Banff, Alta., took the prize.
In the news category, Raine won the award with a photo of Bruno, Sask., farmer Percy Schmeiser in a field with volunteer canola.
