Globe and Mail’s Marcus Gee declared winner of NNA Short Feature category

TORONTO — The National Newspaper Awards has announced a new category winner after an error was discovered in results transmitted from judges to administrators.

Marcus Gee of the Globe and Mail has been declared the winner of the Short Feature category.

Last Friday, Caroline Alphonso of the Globe and Mail was erroneously announced as the category’s winner.

Paul Samyn, vice-chairman of the NNA Board of Governors, said there are no changes to other finalists in the category.

“We deeply regret this unfortunate human error and apologize to both Caroline Alphonso and Marcus Gee,” Samyn said in a release Wednesday.

“Their submissions, along with those of the other seven individuals who were short-listed in the category, were examples of compelling feature writing.”

Samyn said in the 71 years of the National Newspaper Awards, this is the first time such an error has occurred.

He said to ensure there will be no repeat, administrators are implementing new reporting procedures for the contest.

Starting with the 2020 contest year, there will be a three-step verification process to ensure that entries identified as finalists, including the winning entry, are accurate when results are entered into the judging system.

The organization said a review determined the error this year was caused by the chief judge entering the wrong identification number when submitting the voting panel’s choices electronically.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 6, 2020.

The Canadian Press