LITTLE CURRENT–Last Friday, May 24, was a memorable day for The Manitoulin Expositor for that date precisely marked 145 full years of Northern Ontario’s oldest newspaper’s publishing history. Publisher Alicia McCutcheon celebrated the occasion with locally-made “black and white and red all over” cupcakes and Farquhar’s lemonade and one-and-all were invited to The Expositor’s downtown Little Current office to help celebrate.
But, simultaneously, the final placings for the Ontario Community Newspaper Association’s annual “Better Newspapers Competition” were being announced in an on-line “ceremony” that began at noon.
Expositor staffers not involved in chatting with well-wishers or serving them cupcakes and lemonade were gathered around a computer monitor in the production room, watching to see The Expositor’s placements roll out.
In mid-February, judges had announced the three finalists in the Better Newspapers competition and The Expositor made it to the top three in three categories: local retail layout, best editorial and best feature story.
Lemonade in hand, staff waited expectantly until the respective categories were announced, and the wait was well worthwhile.
In the local retail layout category, Xoe Roy’s design for an Andy’s ad took third place with the judge observing, “This ad is effective as a local retail ad as it shows all the different products available under one roof. Light background colours work well with the red banners. Nice job!” For Ms. Roy’s part, she observes that “this is a team effort but we’re glad we’ve been recognized.”
In the best editorial category, Mike Erskine’s Page 4 rendering, titled ‘Out of sight should never be out of mind’ and dealing with the issue of homelessness in both regional and Island cases garnered high praise from the judge, who awarded Mr. Erskine first place.
“This editorial is everything a community newspaper’s editorial should be: it is brave, it is well-written (very well-written) and it takes a stand that not all readers will agree with. It also gives a voice to the voiceless; our job, after all.”
For his part, Mike Erskine was pleased, especially with the judge’s comments but was quick to offer an acknowledgement to Wiikwemkoong poet Matthew Manitowabi for providing input and background on the seriousness of the issue. In fact, Mr. Erskine is researching a feature series that will investigate homelessness on Manitoulin Island and region.
The third category in which The Expositor had received placement was for best feature writing and, for the third time, Warren Schlote has taken first place honours in this category (2019, 2021 and now, 2023).
Warren Schlote, who now works for CBC radio in Sudbury, and wears a myriad of hats there, was not in a place that day to watch the award placements being announced but was very pleased with the outcome. His feature story, headlined ‘Rediscovered song celebrates Islander John Eadie’s WWII sacrifice’ was a remembrance day feature that focused on “The ballad of Johnny Eadie” that had been penned, following his 1943 wartime death in Sicily, by a friend and fellow Little Current-area native Stanley Mills who, like Corporal Eadie, had enlisted in 1939.
In his comments, the category judge noted that, “I have judged newspaper competitions for over 30 years and have never given a perfect score. No story is ‘perfect,’ but this is as close as it gets. Congratulations! A supreme effort! An interesting subject, dripping in history. It has everything! Any slight flaw is easily forgotten.”
For her part, publisher Alicia McCutcheon offered her congratulations to Xoe, Mike and Warren, adding that she is extremely proud of her whole staff that works hard to produce a community newspaper that delivers news and advertising messages, (making a permanent record of local history in the process) and entertains us well.
It was quite a day to celebrate 145 years of service to Manitoulin Island, while at the same time working hard on all aspects of this week’s (today’s) edition.
