The Lake Report continued its dominance of the provincial community newspaper industry awards with the unveiling of the winners in the annual Ontario Community Newspapers Association awards last week.

Niagara-on-the-Lake’s newspaper and news website NiagaraNow.com took a total of 27 awards, far and away more than any other Ontario publication, large or small.

The industry contest was for news, features, photography and advertising published between Oct. 1, 2022, and Sept. 30, 2023.

In all, the paper won the most first-place awards with nine — including Photographer of the Year for NOTL’s Dave Van de Laar — along with nine second-place prizes and eight third-place awards.

The paper also received one honourable mention.

Richard Harley, the founder and editor-in-chief of The Lake Report, credited the hard work and dedication of the newspaper’s news and advertising staff and numerous community contributors for the latest awards.

“As well, we owe a debt of gratitude to everyone in the community for being avid readers of our little paper and for allowing us the privilege of telling their stories,” he noted.

“But without the dozens of small and large businesses that support us every week to advertise their goods and services, none of this would be possible,” Harley said.

Van de Laar, a retired City of Niagara Falls infrastructure and asset technologist, has lived in NOTL all his life.

He took up photography 15 years ago and has been shooting for The Lake Report for about three years.

He was a runner-up for the Photographer of the Year award last year. He also took first place this year in one of the feature photography categories.

Since 2020, The Lake Report has now won 96 provincial and national awards, more than any other publication in the country.