Canada’s most esteemed organization dedicated to recognizing excellence in digital journalism has named Xtra a finalist for three awards.
Mel Woods, senior editor, audience engagement, is a finalist for the Digital Publishing Awards’ Emerging Excellence category, which honours an individual whose early work in Canadian digital publishing shows the highest degree of craft and promise.
Ziya Jones, managing editor, health, is a finalist in the Best Feature Article: Long category for “Young and trans in Canada,” a partnership with Chatelaine. Erica Lenti, Chatelaine’s deputy editor, features, and fact checker Mashal Butt are also named on the nomination.
Jones is also named as handling editor on Xtra contributor Kai Cheng Thom’s Dangerous Space column, which unpacks hot-button issues in the news and in popular culture and was nominated for Best Column.
You can read about the finalists in all categories here.
“We’re thrilled to receive these nominations, in such great company, and to have the National Media Awards Foundation recognize the importance of these leading queer and trans voices at such a crucial time for our communities,” says Xtra’s managing editor, Tara-Michelle Ziniuk. “Kai Cheng Thom, Mel Woods and Ziya Jones have contributed to Xtra in various capacities for years, and we couldn’t be more proud to share their brilliance with the digital publishing community.”
Xtra Magazine is the longest-serving LGBTQ2S+ publication in Canada. For more than 40 years, it has been a dedicated voice for telling the stories of queer and trans people, a segment of the population that is largely overlooked or misrepresented by large mainstream media outlets.
Previously a print product that turned solely digital in 2015, Xtra offers fresh journalistic insight, context and background on current affairs and contemporary culture. In 2023, it became the first queer publication to join the ranks of The Trust Project, an international consortium of news outlets committed to transparency, accuracy, inclusion and fairness.
Xtra won a gold medal for general excellence at the 2023 Digital Publishing Awards. In awarding that honour, the jury singled out the magazine’s breadth of content and the uniqueness of its POV, stating, “At a time where queer rights are endangered in Canada and the United States, Xtra Magazine stands as a beacon for reliable, in-depth coverage.”
Xtra is owned and operated by Pink Triangle Press, one of the longest-publishing LGBTQ2S+ media groups in the world.
Why you can trust Xtra
