The judges had a tough time to select winners and two finalists in eight categories this year. They worked independently of each other to read 77 entries. Interestingly, in most categories the judges’ decisions coincided, and the winners were well spread over a wide range of publications. The category of best community content attracted the most entries: 26. The layout category attracted 19 entries. Other categories attracted between four and 10 entries. Judging all the entries was a delightful task, the judges said. They were mindful of the variety of publications, ensuring as they read through them all that the small black-and-white newsletters were just as likely to contain important material as were the glossy colour magazines. The tragedy of the Victorian bushfires led to some powerful writing, and this was evident in many of the entries. Every entry in the awards was a celebration of the diversity of community newspapers, of their role as historical records, of the talents and writing abilities of those who produced them, and of the social relationships in towns and neighbourhoods across Victoria. Many fine entries missed out on awards because of stiff competition. The judges remarked also that occasionally they saw a terrific article in an unsuitable category. Here are the judges’ comments.

Best editorial comment: Warrandyte Diary. Mountain Monthly. Waranga News.

The Warrandyte Diary’s editorial in February told the story of how a cool wind-change on Black Saturday saved that town but swept the tragedy toward other towns. With masterful use of anecdote, concise language, and strong imagery, the Diary editorial considered the way uncontrollable influences including temperature and wind direction came together that day in a way that even the most sophisticated equipment and the best-laid plans could not stem, and warned that as global warming continued, traditional monitoring of dangerous weather threats might be insufficient. This editorial put the fires in a wider context.

Mountain Monthly’s March edition celebrated the joy of a familiar face after a crisis and the way strangers became friends after fear and loss in the bushfires. The editorial was a tribute to those who survived, and the Monthly called for a journey together in the recovery. “There is a local pride and a strong feeling of community unity,” the editorial stated. “We can share grim humour, the understanding without saying, and although each of our stories is different, we are united as survivors of the greatest natural disaster in the modern history of Australia.”

The Waranga News editorial comment in its February edition was a confronting piece about declining interest in joining community groups. “Who will cut the sandwiches and make cups of tea?” the paper asked. In that region the Red Cross, the CWA, church auxiliaries, and school parent groups were experiencing dwindling numbers. The editorial wondered about the reasons for such changes in community life.

Best sports article: Lorne Independent. Waranga News. Church & District News.

Lorne Independent’s Sports Briefs page covered a wide range of community sporting activities, from football to bowls, making it look like one article and enticing people to read the whole page. This was an exercise in conciseness and ease of reading, ensuring the reader devoured every section. It is difficult to create consistency and an impression of unity from a disparate collection of sports notes from contributors. The independent’s sports page achieved this.

Waranga News devoted several pages to the finals season in its September edition. Clever use of pictures, comprehensive coverage of end-of-season medalists, and a declaration that the local boys had strength, skill, leadership, and guts in the lead-up to the finals gave a clear message to readers that this community newspaper was unashamedly biased towards all of its home teams in the finals frenzy.

Churchill & District News sports writer Simon McDonald’s description of the Cougars’ thriller grand final victory contained lots of references to individual players and their achievements and was written in clear, conversational, prose style, avoiding the confusion that paragraphs of scores, numbers, and figures might have created.

Best young person’s article: Traf News. Signpost. Stratford Town Crier.

The Traf News gave an opportunity to young contributor Shanae Clark to describe a trip to Malaysia. Shanae kept a diary of the experiences of teachers and students from Trafalgar High School. Though a chronological account of the journey, and with perhaps a bit too much use of the first person pronoun, the article nevertheless was easy to read, contained some interesting facts, and drew on the similarities and differences among people and places.

Signpost’s Mollie Travica in her article about Leadbeater’s possums wrote about a group of girls working to save the endangered marsupial. The group, HELP, was seeking sponsorship for nesting boxes and was working with schools and Healesville Sanctuary in the project. By giving a voice to young writers such as Mollie, community newspapers can contribute to projects for a worthy cause. The topic was important, and the writer focused on the project and the people, avoiding the temptation to make herself the centre of the story.

The Stratford Town Crier in support for young people with a literary interest published Shakira Dugan’s anti-war poem Below the Trenches. There is a place for poetry and fiction in community newspapers. Many commercial newspapers include sections of short stories and poetry in their literary supplements, and some of the world’s greatest writers have been both journalists and novelists: Charles Dickens and Rudyard Kipling, for example. Shakira’s 16-verse poem was a powerful reference to what really happens in war.

In the young people’s section, the judges struggled to reach agreement. They commented that the Tallangatta Herald’s article about Tallangatta Secondary College student Luke Kissane’s invention of a rain gauge contained clear expression, good grammar, and great pics.

Best newsletter 12 pages or fewer: Kyneton Connect, Newstead Echo, Bass Valley News.

Kyneton Connect’s February edition was a plain, unembellished, three-column newsletter with no advertisements, small photographs, and consistent style. It was packed with news, including a slightly controversial and informative story about a heated pool, information about a proposed age-care facility, notice of important public events and courses, council stories, and notes from community groups. This was a good old fashioned community newsletter stacked full of important information. No one who lived in Kyneton could afford to miss any edition. This newsletter contained a lot of information in a small space, one of the judges commented.

The Newstead Echo took the judges’ eye as another plain, black-and-white publication full of short, snappy items of local news. Three stories appeared on the front page of the September edition: a karate seminar, a pre-school auction, and the success of a local person, Geoff Park, in winning the nation’s most prestigious science award, the Eureka prize. In terms of news values, the Eureka story could have lead the page, as it was a once-in-a-lifetime event, but the editor’s decision was to highlight the trivia night as the lead, perhaps because it turned out to be a “ripper” night – and editors know their readership well. The paper covered a wide range of community activities, the judges stated.

Bass Valley News, the black-and-white glossy12-pager from the Western Port Bay region, took an award again, this year with its May edition, in which a mysterious and enhanced front page photograph of a dinosaur enticed the reader to page 9 for the full story of a palaeontological dig. “Perhaps I have sensationalized the front page,” wrote the editor, “but hey, I caught your attention didn’t I?” The article is a major news story in a successful little publication full of community notices and advertisements. The judges also thought it had good presentation.

Though it missed out on an award this year, Beeac News was a serious contender in this category, with effective use of a single colour and a lead story about preserving the names of fallen soldiers in an avenue of honour. Simplicity and clarity were two qualities the judges noticed in the Beeac News.

Best News Reporting: Thomson Times. Bass Valley News. Welcome Record.

Thomson Times won this section with a report on a three-year quest to obtain a remote control visual alert system to warn people of bushfire and other danger. The short but engaging article contained human interest in an anecdote about how a profoundly deaf couple tended to their animals during the 2006 Moondarra fires, unaware they were in danger. The Lions Club lobbied, and three years and $2500 later the system was installed so the couple could maintain their quality of life and personal safety. The winner was an example of how an unassuming, short article could attract the judges’ interest because of the quality of writing and the human interest content. “It was a small but important article,” the judges said, “highlighting a section of the community with challenges not given much thought by the general public”.

Bass Valley News entered a strong article in this category about the cause and effect of vegetation removal. The paper tackled a complex subject with fairness and balance. Efforts to shore up the Western Port coastline near the village of Grantville are encountering problems because of the frailty of the land and water systems. Particularly valuable, the paper reported, were the fragile mangroves. This article was an example of how community newspapers could confront authorities over the hard issues while at the same time informing readers of what really goes on behind the bulldozers and planning meetings.

The Welcome Record, a booklet-size publication, reached the finals because of its factual reporting of emergency services activities and accomplishments of members and helpers. The article in the July edition contained facts and figures, concrete descriptions of new equipment, and reference to people’s contributions to the SES’s doubling of its fleet. The Dunolly district really pulls together, if the Welcome Record is any indication.

Best layout: Mountain Monthly. Boolara Link. Birragurra Mail

Mountain Monthly’s sophisticated colour magazine style and emphasis on photographs and graphics earned it the award in this section. But, said board head Jenny Beales during the tour of the Mountain Monthly newsroom the Sunday of the 2009 conference, the team began with a smaller, plainer publication and made decisions to introduce colour along the way. With 90 pages, MM enjoyed the use of plenty of space in its August edition. Features included four-column uncluttered format, placement of main news stories on the right pages and main advertisements on the left pages, use of just red or just blue on most pages, and the maintaining of a simple, clear relationship between editorial and graphics.

Boolara Link in its April 09 edition led with an aerial picture of the town surrounded by fire and the words: Boolara says thank you, to everyone who helped save the town. “Heroes all”, the anonymous poem stated, superimposed on the picture. But a dramatic picture does not a newspaper make, and inside it was back to business, because there was much other news in that town at the time. Australia Day celebrations led page 3. Juggling various news events can be a difficult decision for editors. The choice of a photograph to portray the Boolara crisis freed up page 3 and the reader’s mind as well to consume the other main news event. It was a fine balance of content. The Link is a three-column tabloid size newsprint publication. The large type and clever use of white space makes it easy on the eye. A few advertisements across the bottom of the pages, a single article per page, occasional fancy borders, and no more than two or three pictures to a page give the paper a very unfussy and open appearance. Perhaps not the most economical use of space, but very comfortable to read. “Simple layout, plenty of space, easy to read, plain typefaces, good photos,” one judge commented.

The Birregurra Mail Volume 23 No. 2 caught the eye of the judges because of its simplicity, clever use of colour, and impressive spread on pages 10 and 11. This A4 publication had lots of white space, carefully selected content, and clear arrangement of articles, enabling ease of reading and giving the impression everything on the pages was there for a good reason.

Because the layout category received many entries, the judges needed to confer to choose just three. Mountain Monthly was a contender for its well laid-out pages and depth of content. Churchill & District News also presented a challenge for its spacious layout and effective balance of type and photographs. New CNAV member The Pinnacle, from French Island, drew attention too, with its distinctive old-world banner and strong content, fiercely protective of the interests and sentiments of the island community that produced it. The selection of three finalists in this category is no indication that the other entries were lacking in quality and impact. All criteria considered, sometimes the judges had to just say: “That one is good, but I really like this one.” This was a reference to an indefinable quality that simply attracted readers.

Best historical article: Noojee News. Chewton Chat. Carisbrook Mercury.

Noojee News was the clear winner in this category, with a letter from an Englishman who migrated to Australia in 1924. The letter, to his mother in Sheffield, describes his being trapped in the bushfires of 1926 and spending two days up to his neck in the river. The Noojee News received an email from the Englishman’s grandson, who found the letter in family archives on the death of his mother. The Noojee News’s clever use of this serendipitous letter in the same year as Black Saturday made readers aware of the eternal threat generations of Victorians have faced. It was also a detailed historical reference. Noojee was a timber town back then. The old letter stood alone as a fascinating account of the 1926 fires and was an exercise in fine writing from the days when writing was an art, a craft, and the only means of communication. “It was the Deverts house – just an old woman & a little girl & boy. I had just time to bury their bedclothes & clothing before fire caught us. It traveled faster than a horse could run,” the letter stated.

Chewton Chat’s emphasis on history earned this A4 black-and-white newsletter a place in the finals with an informative and inquiring article about the meeting of diggers at Golden Point in 1851. The content was scholarly and well researched, but easy to read. The writer, Ken McKimmie, built the story around six photographs and sketches, with great attention to detail. This article could generate responses from readers who might add to the story from their own knowledge, and it would serve as a historical record with a great deal of authenticity about it. The expression was clear and concrete.

Carisbrook Mercury reached the finals with a story about a resident’s recollections of the great Depression. Such stories link readers with the past and are a reminder that little has changed for the poor in hard times. The article was informative, full of detail about the diet back then, about the swaggies whose presence frightened the children, though the swaggies were just homeless and had nothing to eat, and about the ways the women used to cook up rabbits they kept in pairs in an old shed. The story used the anecdotal style, a very effective way to create strong images for readers. An early photograph accompanied the article.

The judges remarked on many entries in this category, because the history entries were so engaging. If any other one should receive a special mention, they said, it was the article in the Great Gisborne Gazette titled The National Hotel at Cabbage Tree Creek, a full-page feature about the hotel, from the archives of the historical society, accompanied by old pictures. The style of writing resembled historical society records.

Best Community content: Burwood Bulletin. Traf News. Great Gisborne Gazette.

Burwood Bulletin’s winter 2009 edition contained articles about Black Saturday, an elderly couple who had lived in the same street for 60 years, a plane crash tragedy, a link with the Barak Obama campaign, the Salvos, arts events, a history story, some local business promotions, sport, volunteering, churches, and pages of notes from many community groups. The balance of news and community information made the publication an essential community newsletter for people in the distribution area.

Traf News has been a stayer in the CNAV awards since 2004, winning sometimes in the sports category in the past. The A4 newsletter June edition with single colour banner contained pages of local news, including highly newsworthy articles. It was as though someone on the editorial committee had gone out into the field to find stories. There was an emphasis on town planning, which indicated an awareness of the important issues affecting public and private land use in the town. Great content, unpretentious style, straight forward reporting, a paper for people of all ages, the judges said.

The Great Gisborne Gazette, a tabloid size on newsprint, led its spring edition with a photograph of fields of daffodils, attributed to Ron Weste. This reflects the trend in commercial papers of filling the front page with a picture. Inside was a collection of news stories about town planning, a tourism campaign, the CFA, some community service awards, the local police, school activities, a history page, an obituary, and snippets of gossip around the town – the ingredients of a successful community paper. It contained the in-and-around-town reporting of great interest to local people, the judges said.

The 2009 judges were:

• Gwen Oldmeadow, a real estate agent at Drouin, mother of two, and former member of local community organizations including Soroptimist International, Upper Beaconsfield Tennis Club, and the Anglican Church Upper Beaconsfield. Gwen grew up in Cora Lynn and lost her home in the Ash Wednesday bushfires.
• Raylee Burns, photographer, pre press operator at the star News Group, mother, and a member of the Warragul community. Raylee attended school at Bendigo and spent much of her adult life in the Healesville region.