Full details of how to register in advance so that entries can be made from January 4 are now available at www.pressawards.org.uk where categories are listed and where there are full instructions about how to enter.
The Press Awards which will culminate with a glittering gala dinner at the Lancaster London Hotel, Lancaster Gate, on Tuesday 20 March, 2012, are organised on behalf of the industry by the Society of Editors. Proceeds will help to fund the Society of Editors’ campaigning for press freedom and the Journalists’ Charity.
The Lancaster London Hotel will provide the backdrop for the most prestigious event in the industry's calendar with more than 400 editors, writers and columnists coming together to salute the quality, diversity and success of national newspaper journalism.
There will be a total of 33 categories of awards including the splitting up of categories covering features, columns and interviews to reflect the different styles in newspapers. There will be a new award to recognise humour in a newspaper.
The Judges’ Awards will be chosen by a special panel. They will consider and vote for the Newspaper of the Year taking into account achievements made during the year across all platforms – print, online and mobile. By submitting an entry for Newspaper of the Year, the editorial teams that make up a newspaper will automatically be considered for new team awards.
Staff and freelance journalists can submit entries so long as their work has appeared in a British national newspaper or on its related digital platforms during 2011. It is recommended that entrants should start to collect PDFs of their work now ready for submission online from 4 January.
The closing date for entries is Tuesday 24 January 2012. A shortlist will be announced on Friday 17 February 2012.
The awards will include the Cudlipp Award, organised by the British Journalism Review that recognises excellence in popular journalism and the Journalists’ Charity special award.
The judging process involves independent figures from across the industry and representatives of all the UK national titles. They remain the most rigorously judged journalism awards.
The judging will be chaired by Society of Editors executive director Bob Satchwell (pictured) who reports regularly to a forum of UK newspaper representatives chaired by Jonathan Grun of the Press Association.
Journalists shortlisted for an award are listed among the elite of the newspaper industry and winning is a crowning achievement of any journalist’s career, says the Society of Editors.
Diary dates
Entries Open: Wednesday 4 January 2012
Entries Close: Monday 24 January 2012
Shortlists announced: Friday 17 February 2012
Awards dinner: Tuesday 20 March 2012
