[NOTE: The number of nominations for some publications have been updated.]

The finalists for the fourth annual 2012 Canadian Online Publishing Awards have been announced. The COPAs honours excellence in digital journalism and design from magazines, newspapers, broadcasters and online-only publishers.

Here are the publications with the most nominations in each division — Red (consumer, custom, religious, public association); Blue (business-to-business, professional association, farm, scholarly); and Green (daily and weekly newspapers, and broadcasters):


Beginning with blue, the finalists with the most nods are Sparksheet (from Spafax) with seven nominations, and IT World Canada with five nominations. University of British Columbia (UBC) Graduate School of Journalism and University Affairs each have five nominations.

In the green division, Toronto Star leads the way with 14 nominations, while CBC garnered a total of 10 nods. Globe and Mail ended up with eight finalist selections, with the Huffington Post, The Grid and The Tyee close behind at seven each. The National Post received four.

In the consumer division, there were a number of standouts including CanadianLiving.ca (TC Media) with seven nominations, Canadian Art with five nods, and Maclean's with four.

Some of the online-only publication category entries nominated this round include Toronto Standard, rabble.ca, YummyMummyClub.ca, OpenCanada.org (Canadian International Council) and Boulder Pavement (Banff Centre Press).

To view all 2012 finalists, visit this page (note: some of the images of the entries are still being updated; finalists are listed alphabetically by submitted title of entry).

Winners will be announced Oct. 22 at a new venue, The Hoxton in Toronto, with host Amber Mac — an entrepreneur, television host, professional speaker, and bestselling author. She co-hosts a TV show on CTV/BNN called AppCentral, which airs nationally in Canada, Australia, and South Korea.

Tickets (including the first-ever COPA yearbook showcasing finalists and winners) are $25 online or $40 at the door. Buy tickets in advance here.