The Better Newspapers Competition (BNC) committee has chosen to extend the submission deadline until <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />
The week-long extension was granted for two reasons. The primary reason was that the regional and national General Excellence competitions are now separate, which means that members must enter the CCNA General Excellence directly. The BNC Committee hopes that the extra week will give members a bit of a break if they only just realized that they had to enter the national competition directly.
Secondly, the BNC Entry Book was only available on-line this year, which is unlike previous years when members received a hard-copy of the book. Making the book in exclusively electronic form saved thousands of dollars in printing and mailing costs, factors that all CCNA member publishers can relate to. The on-line BNC Entry Book can be found at www.communitynews.ca/bncawards/2004/entrybook.asp.
The CCNA staff has made great efforts to aid members in the transition for this yearÔÇÖs BNC Awards submission process. Andrew Powell, Member Services Assistant, has fielded many calls from newspaper staff who wanted some extra clarification on the new payment scheme, the rules of entry and other details.
Despite these recent changes to the BNC, numerous entries have already been received. A steady stream of couriers has kept the CCNA staff hopping. This extension should not delay the announcement of finalists.
The Better Newspapers Competition is the annual awards program run by the Canadian Community Newspapers Association (CCNA) recognizing excellence in the community newspaper industry in
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