The Western Canadian Pipeline is now an award winner.

The Pipeline has earned top honours from Newspapers Canada in the 2011 Great Ideas competition magazine category.

The Pipeline award was to be officially handed out in Vancouver April 30.

Nine judges named awards in six categories. The entries are available for viewing online though the Newspaper Canada website.

Newspapers Canada is a joint initiative of the Canadian Newspaper Association and the Canadian Community Newspapers Association. The two associations represent over 830 daily, weekly and community newspapers in every province and territory in Canada.

Alan Poirier, managing editor of the Pipeline, is pleased that the publication was recognized with an award.

“It’s a testament to the great writing and layout design that goes into the Pipeline,” Poirier says. “It is filled with excellent stories about the people that work in the industry and industry trends. It’s fresh.”

With five years of issues behind it, the Pipeline sets out to capture history in the making in the energy industry, with stories that include the latest technology, groundbreaking mergers and testimony from experts on where things may be heading.

However, it’s the stories on the family businesses or the engineer who spent hours in his garage working on an invention that really make the Pipeline different from other publications.

Published quarterly, the Western Canadian Pipeline is available free through requested subscription by those in the oil and gas industry. For a subscription, e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .