Midlands Media Awards winners announced.
The Birmingham Mail and Leicester Mercury topped the list of individual winners at the Midlands Media Awards, held at Villa Park. But the weekly tabloid Tamworth Herald was crowned Newspaper of the Year, while last year’s winner, the Derby Telegraph, lifted the Scoop of the Year trophy thanks to a “fine piece of investigative journalism” from reporter Martin Naylor.
Sponsored by Birmingham Airport, the Awards were organised by Cloud 9 Event Management as part of Birmingham Press Club’s 150th anniversary celebrations.
Edited by Gary Phelps, the Tamworth Herald – which was also Highly Commended in the Supplement of the Year category – beat off competition from the Ashbourne News Telegraph, Coventry Telegraph, Derby Telegraph, Express & Star and Hinckley Times to take the coveted title.
The judges, headed by Peter Lowe, managing editor at Sky News, said it was “a clear favourite with terrific front pages, superb pictures and original local journalism.”
The judging panel rated Martin Naylor’s article on “The True Identity of City’s Would-be Suicide Bomber” as a fine piece of investigative journalism that led to him exposing a man already convicted of hate crimes as a terrorist fighter with Islamic State.
Jon Griffin, who has recently taken voluntary redundancy from the Birmingham Mail, retained his Business Journalist award, while, for the second year in succession, Adam Smith, from the Halesowen News, was named as News Reporter (Weekly).
Photographic honours went to Angela Ward (Nottingham Post), Mike Sewell (Leicester Mercury) and Anna Draper (Lincolnshire Echo).
Over 300 entries were received for the awards, including a record number of 37 for the News Reporter (Daily) category, which was won by Andy Richards, of the Sunday Mercury.
In addition to headline sponsor Birmingham Airport, the awards were also supported by Aston Villa FC, Bournville College, Birmingham City University, Cloud 9 and Fotoauto.
