The Lake Report’s strong performance in the Ontario Community Newspapers Association’s awards continued last Friday as Niagara-on-the-Lake’s hometown news source again took home more top honours than any other publication in the province.
At the association’s annual convention and awards ceremony in Collingwood, The Lake Report was first in nine categories while adding six second-place awards and eight thirds for 2025.
As well, the judges, media professionals from across Canada and the United States, gave The Lake Report honourable mentions in three classifications.
The publication began as the niagaranow.com news website in 2017 and after the long-standing Niagara Advance closed, the print edition of The Lake Report was born in 2018. The paper has won 170 national and provincial awards for its work in the past five years.
This year, in the largest circulation class (8,000 and up), NOTL’s paper captured first place for overall General Excellence. Judges noted the paper is a “lively” publication full of “hard-hitting news” and should be a “great source of pride for the community.”
As well, niagaranow.com, the paper’s daily news website, was ranked as the Best Community Newspaper Website in the province and our annual Remembrance Day section was judged Best Feature Pages.
The summer 2025 edition of “NOTL: A Guide for Distinguished Explorers,” our twice-annual tourism-focused magazine, produced in conjunction with the NOTL Chamber of Commerce, won first place for Best Vertical Product.
Richard Harley, the paper’s founder and editor-in-chief, was singled out for six individual awards for journalism and advertising.
Harley earned two firsts: for In-house Promotion for our Christmas wrap featuring artwork created by hundreds of Crossroads Public School students; and best Original Ad Idea for Maple Leaf Fudge’s advertisement in “NOTL” magazine.
Harley also won second for Editorial Cartoon and third for Headline Writing, Best Creative Ad (for Maple Leaf Fudge) and Use of Colour (for Art Space 106’s ad in “NOTL” magazine).
Wendy Cheropita’s first-person account of her experience navigating the emergency department of the St. Catharines hospital was judged the Best Guest Column.
The NOTL councillor told readers about the good and bad experiences she endured during two visits to the ER after suffering a serious medical episode.
Contributor Jill Troyer’s Heartbeat of the Harvest series, about the migrant workers who are crucial to the success of NOTL’s agricultural industry, took first place for Best Rural Story.
The paper also won first for Best Police/Court Series, for Kevin MacLean’s on-going stories about 84-year-old cyclist Nestor Chemerika being killed by Richard Alan Moore in a hit-and-run, and Moore’s subsequent arrest last summer on several charges after a boat struck a swimmer during an outing in Muskoka.
Reporter Paige Seburn took home four awards: second in the prestigious Reporter of the Year category; third in Best Feature/News Series and Best Investigative News Story (for her on-going series The Wild West of Wine, about how some NOTL wineries do not follow the rules governing how they operate); and honourable mention for Education Writing (about overcrowding at St. Davids Public School).
Dave Van de Laar’s body of work earned second spot in the Photographer of the Year category. He also placed third for Most Creative Grip and Grin Photo, a dynamic image of the NOTL Museum’s annual poppy project.
Second-place honours were received for: Best Front Page, Best Editorial Page/Section and Best Spot News Photo (contributor Jamie Slingerland’s image of thousands of starlings descending on a NOTL vineyard, where they can do heavy damage to grape crops);
Third-place awards included: In the Best News Story category, former staff reporter Julia Sacco’s in-depth story on the arson fire that destroyed Glencairn Estate and The Lake Report’s annual salute to International Women’s Day, featuring the “elbows up” theme.
Humour columnist Ross Robinson and general columnist Garth Turner both received honourable mentions in their respective categories.
