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Editor's column: Ma Murray's tradition lives on

Not sure what you’re doing this Saturday night, but I’ll be at the River Rock Casino — in case you’re wondering. No, I won’t be pumping coins into the slot machines. I’ll be there to attend the annual Ma Murray Awards hosted by the B.C.
Ma Murray

Not sure what you’re doing this Saturday night, but I’ll be at the River Rock Casino — in case you’re wondering. No, I won’t be pumping coins into the slot machines. I’ll be there to attend the annual Ma Murray Awards hosted by the B.C. and Yukon Community Newspaper Association (BCYNA).

I’m proud to say, we’ve been nominated for two awards: Newspaper Excellence and Multimedia News Story. The first is awarded to a paper that manages to create a stellar full package, everything from a powerful front page, to provocative headlines, to engaging stories, to creative page design, to helpful ads. The fact we’ve even been nominated is a thrill.

The Multimedia News Story award goes to a paper for producing a story through a variety of online platforms. For us, it was our coverage of October’s municipal election.

I feel particularly good about this one because, on election night, we tried things we’d never done before. We did a “homepage takeover,” loading our website up with charts, graphs, profiles and more. We did Facebook Live videos from various campaign headquarters. We even turned our boardroom into a studio where former Mayor Greg Halsey-Brandt and his wife, former city councillor Evelina Halsey-Brandt, offered commentary on the results.

Most satisfying about that night was the fact we saw our highest page views ever. People wanted this news.

I say this because, frankly, it can get discouraging when we see what stories take off online. “Stupid Richmond drivers” is a favourite theme; cars slamming into buildings or parking on sidewalks (see left) are crazy popular. Those stories have their place, but it’s far more satisfying for us to get that kind of readership for stories we’ve actually put some muscle into, stories that are rooted in substantive, local issues. Which brings me to why these awards are called the Ma Murray’s.

Margaret Lally, the daughter of Irish immigrants, grew up poor in rural Kansas. She left school at 13 to work as a maid but eventually got a job alongside her sister at a saddle-making factory. The two had dreams of marrying a cowboy one day so, in some of the high-end saddles, they would slip notes, letting the buyer know about the single, young woman who made their new saddle — address included. Apparently, the sisters got some responses, often from Alberta. So, Margaret, a take-charge kinda gal, decided to head to Calgary to rope herself one of those cowboys. En route, however, she stopped in Vancouver and got work as a secretary for a publisher named George Murray.

At the newspaper, Lally discovered two loves: one for news, the other for George. The pair were married and became a legendary team in the world of B.C. community newspapers. “Ma”, as she became known, took the editorial reigns, guiding content and writing a hugely popular and wonderfully provocative column. Ma was fiercely committed to, and unflinchingly critical of, the communities in which she lived.

The Ma Murray Awards are about recognizing that tradition from which we come, as well as our place in the future. Despite all the angst over the survival of newspapers, people still have a mighty thirst for good, community news — on whatever platform.  Our election page views shows that. Now, if we could just get the hardware to go with...