It was a special night of recognition for the autoTRADER.ca editorial team recently, when it cleaned up at the 2017 Automobile Journalist Association of Canada (AJAC) awards, garnering seven honours - the most of any auto outlet in one year in recent memory, and possibly ever.
The autoTRADER.ca team took home seven of 19 possible honours at the event for safety articles, environmental pieces, website design, feature stories, and online video that appeared on the site.
Honourees included Stephanie Wallcraft, for her piece on How to Be Safe Around Big Trucks in Winter, which garnered the CAA Road Safety Journalism Award. The runner up honour for the award went to Greg Wilson, for his piece on How Older Drivers Can Drive Stress Free.
Those two talented autoTRADER.ca writers also swept the Nissan Award for Environmental Journalism, which went to Wallcraft for her piece on AJAC's 2017 EcoRun event, while the silver medal here went to Wilson for his "incredibly researched and detailed" look at a a classic EV that was over 100 years old - and still turning EV enthusiast hearts to this day.
Our own senior editor Jacob Black was recognized in the Integrated Automotive Video Journalism Award for his spectacular desert-strewn 2017 Land Rover Discovery video in the online category, embedded in a fine article too.
The autoTRADER.ca/expert and autoTRADER.ca/newsfeatures editorial sites themselves were recognized for excellence in the Kia Best Web Design award, finishing highest of any English language auto site in Canada.
Steve Bochenek also garnered recognition also for his colourful piece detailing his time as a not-so-successful Uber driver. And regular contributor Dan Heyman also was recognized for his photography skills, which would have made 8 out of 19 possible honours, but he happened to take his winning photo for another outlet.
The complete list of talented winners and awards are as follows:
CAA Road Safety Journalism Award
Runner Up: Greg Wilson
Winner: Stephanie Wallcraft
Pfaff Pirelli Photography Award – Published
Dan Heyman
Pfaff Pirelli – Unpublished Photograph
Russell Purcell
Integrated Automotive Video Journalism Awards:
Broadcast Only:
Runner Up: Jim Kenzie
Winner: Antoine Joubert
Internet Only:
Runner Up: Jacob Black
Winner: Sami Haj-Assaad
Kia Best Print Design Awards:
Print Production Only:
Runner Up: Ignition Performance and Luxury
Winner: Le guide de l’auto
Websites only:
Runner Up: AutoTrader.ca
Winner: Le guide de l’auto
Nissan Award for Environmental Journalism
Runner Up: Greg Wilson
Winner: Stephanie Wallcraft
Subaru Feature Writing:
Runner Up: Steven Bochenek
Winner: Steve Mertl
Wakefield Castrol Awards for Automotive Writing:
Technical Topics:
Runner Up: Mark Toljagic
Winner: Mark Richardson
Vehicle Review/Testing:
Runner Up: Kathy Renwald
Winner: Mark Toljagic
Journalist of the Year Presented by Jaguar Land Rover Canada:
2nd Runner Up: Steve Bochenek
1st Runner Up: Mark Toljagic
Winner: Marc Lachapelle
