The Catholic Standard takes out top award
We were very pleased and excited to learn that the Catholic Standard took out the top award at the 2023 Australasian Catholic Press Association (ACPA) Awards held in Perth on 7 September.
The Standard won the Bishop Kennedy Award for Overall Excellence in a Catholic Publication.
“The Catholic Standard eminently reflects the uniqueness and richness of the Catholic community of Australia’s only island state,” the judges stated in their comments.
“It is an excellent balance of local, national and international news, commentary and feature stories.”
“The Catholic Standard does an outstanding job of serving the Catholic community of Tasmania by providing them with well-written, informative, uplifting, relevant and diverse content,” the judges further wrote.
“For this reason, it richly deserves to be considered the ‘Best Catholic Publication’ in Australia.”
Editor of the Catholic Standard, Catherine Sheehan, said receiving the top award was significant for the Archdiocese’s Media and Communications team.
“It’s great recognition of our work and it’s fantastic to get such positive feedback from our peers working in Catholic media,” she said.
“I’d like to thank everyone in our Media and Communications team for their hard work and dedication.”
The Archdiocese of Hobart also received the ‘runner’s up’ award for best use of digital media for the video of the dedication of the altar of St Mary’s Cathedral, created by journalist Josh Low.
The annual ACPA Awards recognise excellence in Catholic media across Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. The Awards are held in a different city each year as the final event of the ACPA Conference for Catholic media and communications professionals.
This year’s conference focussed on the theme from Pope Francis’ message for World Communications Day 2023—‘Speaking with the Heart: The Truth in Love’.
ACPA President Neil Helmore from the Diocese of Townsville congratulated the team at the Catholic Standard for their dedication and commitment.
“As Catholic media, our role is to ensure we announce the good news of our faith, and the Catholic Standard is a prime example of how this important task is fulfilled to the highest quality,” Mr Helmore said.
Archdiocesan Executive Director, Chris Ryan, said since the award was announced he had received many phone calls and messages of congratulations.
“This award is credit to everyone involved and shows that a small diocese has the ability to deliver a quality newspaper – our capability is at times underrated,” Mr Ryan said.