At a ceremony in Manchester last Thursday evening, Reach says it hosted nearly 200 colleagues for its inaugural Celebrating Brilliant Journalism Awards, shining a light on the work of its journalists and teams over the past year.
Host Carol Vorderman, who has also hosted the Mirror’s Pride of Britain awards for 25 years, announced winners and highly commended awards across 27 categories, including Brand of the Year which went to the Express, also celebrating its 125th anniversary on the day. Other wins included the Content Hub taking home the prize for team of the year, the Daily Record’s football podcast HotLine Live for the audio & video award, and journalist of the year, awarded jointly to Zak Garner-Purkis from the Express and the Birmingham Mail’s Jane Haynes.
Reach says the judging panels, which included both editorial and commercial representatives from Reach as well as external judges, whittled the shortlists down from an initial 500 entries to the shortlists. Some categories were announced on the night, including a special award given to Robert Fisk, recognising his work and campaigning following a diagnosis for incurable bowel cancer. Amongst other achievements, his six-month investigation into spiritual healers who claimed they could cure his cancer for money prompted Gumtree to launch a review of adverts in this area and TikTok to remove videos carrying claims of treating COPD and cancer, added Reach.
Chief Digital Publisher David Higgerson said: “With thousands of journalists and a 24-hour operation spanning both sides of the Atlantic, we sometimes forget to pause and recognise the incredible work being done by our journalists every single day.
“These awards are to celebrate and thank those journalists and teams, for everything from the big stories setting the agenda to the important work going on behind the scenes, to the front pages, photographs, and audio/video work that make an impact beyond the words.”
The full list of awards are as follows:
LOCAL DEMOCRACY REPORTER OF THE YEAR
Lee Trewhela (Cornwall)
TEAM OF THE YEAR
Content Hub
BRAND OF THE YEAR
Express
EDITORIAL HERO
Grace Franklin (Live Network)
LONGFORM WRITER OF THE YEAR
Andrew Bardsley (Manchester Evening News)
PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR
Humphrey Nemar
SPORTS JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR
Steffan Thomas (WalesOnline)
JUDGES’ CHOICE
Robert Fisk (Express)
WEBSITE OF THE YEAR - JOINT WINNERS
Manchester Evening News and BelfastLive
BEST EDITORIAL AND COMMERCIAL PARTNERSHIP
Pride of Britain
BEST AFFILIATES JOURNALISM
Manchester Evening News
CREATIVE AWARD
Adam Walker
AUDIO & VIDEO AWARD
Hotline Live (Daily Record)
RISING STAR
Emily Ferguson (Express)
SPORT PAGE OF THE YEAR
Paul Abdale (Mirror)
FRONT PAGE OF THE YEAR (NATIONALS)
Daily Record - Vote Labour
FRONT PAGE OF THE YEAR (REGIONALS)
Bristol Post - No Place on Our Streets
BEST USE OF DATA
Annie Gouk
HEADLINE OF THE YEAR
Austin Barrett (Daily Record) - Some Might Stay (But it will cost a fortune)
CONTENT EDITOR OF THE YEAR
Charlotte Smith (Content Hub)
JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR - JOINT WINNERS
Zak Garner-Purkis (Express) and Jane Haynes (Birmingham Mail/BirminghamLive)
LIVE REPORTING OF THE YEAR
Liverpool Echo, Southport coverage
SCOOP OF THE YEAR
Mirror - exclusive interview with Huw Edwards victim
BELONGING PROJECT AWARDS FOR ENGAGING NEW AUDIENCES - JOINT WINNERS
Paul McAuley (Liverpool Echo), Hedi Mehrez (Reach South East)
APPRENTICE OF THE YEAR
Charlotte Gosling
SOCIAL JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR
Grace Burton (BristolLive)
POLITICAL JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR
James McCarthy (BelfastLive)
Keep up-to-date with publishing news: sign up here for InPubWeekly, our free weekly e-newsletter.
