By Sarah Lagan
The Sentinel Sunday emerged “head and shoulders above the rest” as
it was crowned Newspaper of the Year for the third year running at the
Midlands Media Awards.
One judge said: “I was astonished by the quality of it… it is probably the best regional newspaper I have ever seen.”
Birmingham
Post and Mail journalists picked up five major awards. They included
Hyder Jawad, who was named Sports Journalist of the Year, and Evening
Mail business editor Jon Griffin, who won the Business Journalist of
the Year title.
Sunday Mercury journalist Jeanette Oldham was
named News Reporter of the Year in the same month as becoming
Journalist of the Year at the Newspaper Society Awards.
Oldham wrote an exclusive piece followed up by the nationals about how two gay dads had adopted three young girls.
The
Sunday Mercury’s Zoe Chamberlain won Feature Writer of the Year for an
interview with a mute woman and the story of a woman whose lover forced
her to become obese.
Newcomer of the Year was Jessica Shepherd.
The
Gloucestershire Echo’s Chris Maguire won Scoop of the Year for the
paper’s coverage of one of the biggest fraud operations in the UK,
involving the Cheltenham solicitor Tim Robinson and 28 others.
The event, hosted by the Birmingham Press Club, was held at the Great Hall at the University of Birmingham.
Other
winners were: Fran Llewellyn, South Shropshire Journal: Headline of the
Year; Ben Bentley, Sutton Coldfield Observer: News Reporter of the Year
(weekly); Emily Barber, Leicester Mercury: News Photographer of the
Year; Matt Short, Leicester Mercury: Trevor Roberts Award; Jo Harvell,
Gloucestershire Echo: Sports Photographer of the Year; The Shropshire
Magazine: Magazine of the Year.
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