Professor David Beers’ The Tyee has won this year’s prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award for best news website. Every year the Radio and Television News Directors Association gives out this award to the best news organizations in North America, and The Tyee is the only Canadian news organization to be honoured for the National (North America-wide) category this year.
They are in good company, with previous winners including washingtonpost.com, texastribune.org and the D.C.-based Center for Public Integrity. The Tyee was also runner-up for this year’s Canadian Journalism Foundation Excellence in Journalism Award.
This is the second time in three years that The Tyee has won the Murrow Award, and it’s the only Canadian news website to have ever received a North America-wide Murrow prize. Beers founded The Tyee in 2003 and is editor-in-chief.
Some of The Tyee’s notable stories over the past year include:
- A 15-part series War Over Oil Sands reported from Washington D.C., exposing Canada’s alliance with oil firms lobbying against climate change legislation
- A 17-part multimedia series Growing Local Bounty on what it takes to build a strong local food economy
- A 15-part series Green Building that included reports on creating housing from shipping containers, which led to changes in building regulations in Vancouver
“Dave’s recognition by the RTNDA is a real affirmation that he’s a leader in the field of digital journalism,” said Prof. Peter Klein, acting director of the School of Journalism. “He is among an elite group of digital journalists on the faculty who are paving the way of the future of journalism.”
The School recently hired Carolyn Pritchard, the former managing editor of GigaOM; Prof. Alfred Hermida , former editor of bbcnews.com, has emerged as a leading scholar in the field of new media.
Prof. Beers has been with the School of Journalism since 2002. He teaches long-form magazine writing and solutions-based journalism, and he mentors many of the School’s students during internships at The Tyee.
“Several graduates have gone on to work at The Tyee as reporters and editors,” noted Prof. Klein, “so congratulations also to the many School of Journalism alumni who have helped make The Tyee into the exceptional news site it is today.”
