More than 200 attended the awards, which were organised by Press Gazette, at the Stationers’ Hall in London earlier this week.
The judges unanimously voted for Gillard’s 11-year investigation into gangster David Hunt which even led to a High Court victory.
The award was the second success of the night for Gillard after he also scooped Investigation of the Year.
The judges said Gillard had particularly stiff competition from the Guardian with their Snowden files revelations as well as Andrew Norfolk’s ongoing investigation into sex grooming.
Press Gazette editor Dominic Ponsford said: “The judges felt that Gillard edged this prize because of the skill, determination and bravery it took to see this story through.
“The Sunday Times succeeded where the collected forces of law enforcement in this country had failed – defeating Hunt in a court of law and obtaining a measure of justice for his victims.”
Unfortunately, Gillard could not attend the ceremony as he was in South America on assignment. He also cannot attend public events in London for safety reasons.
The late Richard Beeston received the special Marie Colvin award for raising the reputation of journalism and providing inspiration for fellow reporters.
Beeston died in May of this year aged 50. However, the former foreign editor at the Times did not allow bouts of chemotherapy to prevent him from reporting from the front line in Syria. He exposed Saddam Hussein’s gassing of Kurdish civilians in 1998 and ethnic cleansing by Serb forces in Bosnia during the early 1990s.
New Journalist of the Year was won by Patrick Kingsley from The Guardian who has been reporting from Egypt since January 2013.
According to the judges: “He wrote the dissection of a massacre in a model way – it’s a great piece of reconstruction that leads to revelation.”
Tom Bergin from Reuters was awarded Business, Finance and Economics Journalist of the Year, however Sarah O’Connor of the Financial Times received special commendation for her investigation into Amazon. They described her work as “some good old-fashioned shoe leather reporting.”
Foreign Affairs Journalist of the Year was Hala Jaber of the Sunday Times.
The judges said: “Her piece about the Assad regime general was one of the few pieces of journalism that tried to get us into the mind of the government side of the conflict – and did so critically.”
Richard Pohle of The Times won Photojournalist of the Year for images which included a shot of British soldiers taking cover at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan.
Joe Murphy of the Evening Standard won Political Journalist of the Year for writing three genuine exclusives, including a revelation that David Cameron was backing gay marriage.
Innovation of the Year was won by The Guardian for GuardianWitness.
Ponsford told the assembled guests: “One of the judges said they had downloaded the app and they were using it every day. They felt it brought citizen journalism and user-generated content to a new level by improving engagement, sourcing great content and doing so in a way that made money for the paper through sponsorship.”
Campaign of the Year was another success for the Sunday Times with Safe Weekend Care coverage winning the award. The series of stories called for a safe seven-day NHS.
According to the judges: “This campaign was well presented, coordinated and presented from beginning to end. It was backed up by great reporting and research and has succeeded in getting the problem addressed at the highest level.”
The Breaking News Award was won by Channel 4 News and Dispatches for their coverage of the Plebgate affair.
Their tenacity in reporting the fallout forced the Metropolitan Police to reopen their investigation and led to one officer being charged in connection with the case.
The judges also praised Dispatches for a separate investigation along with The Guardian into police spying into the Stephen Lawrence family.
David Conn of the Guardian was awarded Sports Journalist of the Year, beating off competition from the Independent, City AM and The Telegraph.
According to the judges: “All his stories were about some form of corruption in sport. He delves beyond the glitzy veneer of modern football to hold the game’s gilded elite to account.”
Meanwhile, Science and Technology Journalist of the Year was won by Robin McKie of The Observer.
The judges said: “He goes for the biggest subjects and makes technical issues compelling with his approachable style of writing. They were particularly impressed by his piece on controversial GM crop Golden Rice which it is claimed could save millions for blindness.”
Commenting on the awards, Ponsford said: “After two years in which 61 UK journalists have been arrested, and in which press ethics has been an endless source of debate, we think it’s never been more important to trumpet the positive contribution that journalism makes to the country.
“They remind us what a great business this is and why it is more than just a business.”
