larongeNOW wins award for community service
larongeNOW has been awarded for the valuable service the website and its reporters provide to the local community.
The website, which launched in January of this year as part of the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group, received the Gold Medal Award in the digital category for community service from the Western Association of Broadcasters. La Ronge was left with minimal local coverage after the recent closures of several media organizations, and larongeNOW.com was launched in an effort to give the community back their voice.
“I’ve really enjoyed the chance to tell the stories out of my home community,” larongeNOW reporter Derek Cornet said. “Local coverage really matters, and it gives a voice to people who may be overlooked by the larger organizations.”
In a letter accompanying the website’s award nomination, Lac La Ronge Indian Band Chief Tammy Cook-Searson said other media organizations would visit the region when major stories broke, but they would disappear again soon after.