Gold Medal for our monthly winners!

The BCYCNA monthly member draw has not been announced for a while but the sales teams are booking ads faster than Alexandre Bilodeau is on skis. We have December, January and February winners to hand out. The following eager individuals have been selected to win the $500 monthly draw.

December - Kelly Pownall, Canwest Community Classifieds
January - Cameron Northcott, Burnaby Now
February - Kristy O’Connor, BC Classifieds (Black Press)

Once again, the BCYCNA hopes you and your team will continue to encourage one another with this campaign. ln order to qualify for the cash prize, all you have to do is sell the BCYCNA’s Community Classifieds! Every time you or a member of your team sells an ad, his/her name automatically goes in the hat for the monthly draw.

BCYCNA members win SNA contest

After much anticipation, Suburban Newspapers of America announced the winners of the 2009 Editorial Contest. Newspapers all over North America submitted their best and brightest work – this included several of BCYCNA member papers. Judged by the Journalism Department faculty of Loyola University Chicago, School of Communication, this year’s contest heralded magnificent results.

Black Press received an outstanding 55 winning entries. Some of the big winners among individual weekly publications include the Peace Arch News with 8 awards, North Shore Outlook with 7, and Abbotsford News also with 7 awards. In the category of Weekly Newspaper Groups the top award went to Black Press with 39 awards! For the complete winners’ list, please click to view by category HERE.

The winners will be recognized at the 2010 Fall Publishers’ & Advertising Directors’ Conference.

Torch relay brightens Canada’s Olympic spirit

The Olympic Torch has made its way back to British Columbia on the final leg of its 106-day journey across our beautiful nation. Along the way many proud Canadians had the opportunity to carry the flame or witness it pass through their communities, as documented by many community newspapers highlighting the Olympic spirit and positive experiences associated with this once-in-a-lifetime event.

On Thursday, February 11 the Torch will arrive in Vancouver for bell lap of the relay with many notable Canadians such as astronaut Julie Payette, singer/songwriter Jann Arden, singer/songwriter Michael Bublé, hockey-dad Walter Gretzky and former BC Lions kicker Luis Passaglia, carrying this Olympic symbol through the host city.

Although Vancouver, West Vancouver, Richmond and Whistler host venues for the winter sports, this will truly be Canada’s Games. We wanted to highlight a few of the memorable torch relay stories featured in the BCYCNA member newspapers. As these stories show, the Olympic spirit across BC and Yukon was certainly on display – it all leading up to February 12 where the world will witness the Torch Lighting Ceremony opening the 2010 Winter Olympics.

For an interactive map of the Torch relay click HERE.