Nick Ferrari to host Regional Press Awards

LBC breakfast presenter Nick Ferrari is returning to present the Regional Press Awards this year, under the new management of the Society of Editors.

The awards lunch will be held at the Riverbank Park Plaza near London’s Vauxhall on Wednesday, 11 May and is being supported by National Lottery operator Camelot.

The judges, chaired by newspaper consultant and designer Peter Sands, are currently working through more than 750 entries and a shortlist is expected to be published in early April.

The Regional Press Awards had historically been run by Press Gazette but the event was retained by Wilmington when it sold Press Gazette to Progressive Media in April 2009.

The National Union of Journalists took the decision to host a scaled-down version of the awards last June after Wilmington decided not to run the event.

Any surplus generated by this year’s awards will be given to the Journalists’ Charity. The ceremony coincides with Local Newspaper Week, which runs from 9-15 May.

Newspaper Society president Georgina Harvey said in a statement today: “It’s more important today than ever to celebrate the unique strengths of our industry. The regional and local press has a long and proud history of journalistic excellence and photographic prowess.”