The St. Albert Gazette was recognized across North America for its innovative use of digital media.
The Local Media Association (LMA), a professional trade association with a membership of more than 2,000 community newspapers throughout the continent, awarded the Gazette third place in the Best Multiplatform Combination category.
Readers might recall a story that ran a year ago, entitled “Hot off the press.” On June 29, 2013, the first issue of the Gazette rolled off the new press.
“The question in the office had everyone puzzled: How can we show readers a picture of the front page of the first issue off the new press when the paper hasn’t even been printed yet?” said Gazette publisher Brian Bachynski.
The answer laid in some digital trickery. Staff created a mock front page for the paper with a blank space where a photo would go. A picture was then taken of Great West Newspapers CEO Duff Jamison with the press in the background. The Gazette’s production department used Photoshop to put that picture into the blank space on the mockup, and voila – a front page with Jamison holding a copy of the same paper readers were reading.
The Gazette also told the story of the new press through time-lapse photography. Over 73,000 images were gathered over the span of several months. The photography department edited and produced a video from the images along with an audio track. The video shows the installation of the press, from an empty press hall to full production. The video can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdO051nQlsQ
“The ‘Hot off the press’ story is a result of collaboration between many people and departments at the Gazette,” Bachynski said.
“People were genuinely excited about pulling this off. I think the end result cleverly tells the story of our new building and the press installation. It is rewarding to be recognized by LMA for our efforts.”
