Top Midlands media names recognized.
Weekly publication The Tamworth Herald has been named as Newspaper of the Year at the Midlands Media Awards – retaining the title that it won for the first time last year.
And one of its journalists, Nicholas Reid, won Newcomer of the Year, while Herald editor Gary Phelps was awarded the Campaign of the Year trophy for his stable-mate paper, the Royal Sutton Coldfield Observer.
Supported by headline sponsors HSBC, the Awards, organised by Cloud 9 Event Management on behalf of Birmingham Press Club, were also sponsored by Drayton Manor Theme Park, Birmingham City University, Birmingham Pride and the Nightingale Club.
Birmingham Press Club, which is now celebrating its 151st anniversary, is the oldest Press Club in the world. The Awards, attended by almost 200 guests, are the highlight of the Club’s event calendar
The Awards, which this year attracted more than 200 entries, take place annually to acknowledge the achievements of the region’s leading journalists, photographers, broadcasters and bloggers.
The judges, chaired by television journalist Suzanne Virdee, praised the Herald as “never failing to impress” with its mixture of exclusives, original local journalism and great imagery.
Double honours went to Jonathan Gibson, from the BBC’s Inside Out West Midlands programme, who won both Journalist of the Year and Television Journalist of the Year, while Scoop of the Year went to Adam Smith of the Halesowen News (winner for the last two years of the News Reporter of the Year (weekly category) for exposing a “bullying scandal” of a local councillor. Ben Ireland from the Nottingham Post lifted the trophy for the hotly-contested category of News Reporter of the Year (Daily)
Photographic honours went to Adam Fradgley, AMA Sports Photo Agency; Mark Williamson, Stratford Herald and Nick Wilkinson of the Birmingham Mail.
ITV Central’s Mark Gough was named as Business Journalist of the Year; his colleague Steve Clamp received the accolade of Sports Journalist of the Year, while Trinity Mirror’s Mike Lockley also walked away with two trophies.
