![['Russell Wangersky']](https://saltwire.imgix.net/russell-wangersky-2832889.jpg?cs=srgb&fit=crop&h=568&w=847&dpr=1&auto=format%2Ccompress%2Cenhance)
ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — Russell Wangersky has been named a finalist in the columns category for the 70th annual National Newspaper Awards (NNA) competition.
Based at The Telegram, Wangersky is an Atlantic regional columnist for Saltwire Network.
The finalists in the 21 categories, chosen for work published in 2018, were announced Monday.
The other nominees in the columns category with Wangersky are Nathalie Petrowski of La Presse and Niigaan Sinclair of the Winnipeg Free Press.
“I am quite blown away by this and excited,” Wangersky said. “Being recognized nationally just doesn’t happen every day.”
Wangersky was recognized for three columns — the suicide of a paramedic after the mosque shooting in Quebec City, a night stay in a Prince Edward Island hotel and the problems of modern political campaigns promising cheap beer in exchange for votes.
“The columns category at the National Newspaper Awards regularly gets more entries than almost any category they have,” Wangersky said.
“Being a finalist means being among great company.”
It marks the seventh time Wangersky has been a nominee for a NNA.
He was a finalist for editorials in 2002, 2004 and 2011 and for columns in 1997, 2000 and 2014 — and was chosen the winner in both 2002 and 2011.
A well-known freelance cartoonist, Michael de Adder, whose work has been featured in several SaltWire daily papers, including the Halifax Chronicle Herald and, as of last month, The Telegram, is a finalist in the editorial cartooning category.
De Adder, whose cartoons have also been published in Brunswick News and The Toronto Star, is in the running for the award with Brian Gable of The Globe and Mail, and Garnotte (Michel Garneau) of Le Devoir.
The NNA awards were established by the Toronto Press Club in 1949 to encourage excellence and reward achievement in daily newspaper work in Canada. The competition is now open to daily newspapers, news agencies and online news sites approved for entry by the NNA board of governors.
The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in Toronto May 3.
Wangersky’s three columns:
Can I buy you with a 50-cent beer
PTSD claims another life
The night hotel
De Adder’s cartoons can be viewed here.
