The Press won two gold medals as part of the 8e edition of the Excellence in Digital Publishing Awards this week.
The long report on the opioid crisis in Quebec The invisible epidemicsigned by journalist Philippe Mercure and graphic designer Maxime Jean, won the gold medal in the Best thematic file category.
This report in the form of an eight-part digital story explores various angles of the overdose crisis that is shaking Quebec. We can discover that the victims of overdoses are not those we imagine, with ten portraits far from stereotypes. We also explore new data on the crisis in Quebec, solutions and bold projects to fight against the scourge.
For its realization, the team searched more than 1250 coroners’ reports and collected the testimonies of 18 people. “While making this report, I quickly understood that no stereotype can resist the facts. The people affected by overdoses are of all ages, of all social classes, from all over Quebec, ”said Philippe Mercure after the publication of the report.
In this same category, the Radio-Canada report Without a roof, but not on the streetby Ariane Labrèche and Marie-Pier Mercier, also won the gold medal.
The report The invisible epidemic also received two honorable mentions. The first concerns the Best Digital Design category, and is intended for Maxime Jean. And the second in the Best feature article category.
Best Chronicle
The columnist of The Press Patrick Lagacé also won the gold medal in the category of best column. He was notably rewarded for his texts “Alessandro Vinci was not a bandit”, “Dad, I want to get out of here” and “Everyone loves Plem”.
The first returned to the death of Alessandro Vinci in 2018 by rectifying that he was not linked to organized crime, contrary to what the media may have suggested at the time of his assassination. Items that had harmed the victim’s family.
In “Dad, I want to get out of here”, Patrick Lagacé questioned mental health services in Quebec by addressing the suicide of a young woman whom her family had done everything to protect.
The third chronicle spoke of the reception of a refugee student, Plem Kijamba, by a committee of the Cégep de Terrebonne.
In the chronicle category, it’s Chantale Braganza, from Chatelaine, who won the silver medal for “Cooking the book”.
Other Quebec media honored
Other Quebec media were also honored by this edition of the Awards for Excellence in Digital Publishing. Noovo Info on TikTok won gold for Best Social Media Storytelling with “Time for Politicians” on TikTok. Ricochet Media also won gold in the Best Feature Story category for its story on saving a river in Wet’suwet’en territory.
Radio-Canada, RAD, The duty and Ubania notably received at least one silver medal each.
Many local media also received honorable mentions for a series of digital reports, including Radio-Canada (14 mentions), The duty (6 mentions), RAD (4 mentions), the newspaper 24 hours, The Journal of Montrealthe magazine BesideUrbania, Qub and Mordu, among others.