The National Union of Journalists is to host a Regional Press Awards event this year to celebrate the best of local newspaper journalism across the UK.
The move follows Wilmington’s decision not to hold the Regional Press Awards this year due to lack of support from the industry.
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 International in April this year.
The new event will be called the NUJ Regional Press Awards.
NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear said in a statement: “At a time when newspaper groups bemoan the profitability of the industry and cuts in staffing and budgets threaten quality journalism, we are proud to be celebrating inspiring local and regional newspaper journalism.
“It would be unacceptable to see the great work of local and regional journalists – in print and online – go unrecognised. The NUJ Regional Press Awards will be a celebration of tenacious, ethical, quality campaigning journalism and a recognition of the best in photography, design and writing.”
Wilmington announced its decision not to run the Regional Press Awards in March. At the time event director Doug Marshall said: “Newspaper publishers understand the important role these awards play in celebrating the achievements of their journalists and editors, and appreciated our proposal to reduce entry fees and ticket prices.
“However, some felt in the current climate they were unable to commit to entering the awards. To be credible and prestigious these awards require the support of all major newspaper publishers, so we’ve decided to rest the awards for this year.”
The NUJ event will take place on Tuesday, 29 June, at Dingwalls in Camden from 1pm. It will be free to enter and has attracted commercial sponsorship.
The awards will be open to non-members of the NUJ.
The categories are:
- Multimedia Journalist of the Year
- Reporter of the Year
- Columnist of the Year
- Feature Writer of the Year
- Sports Journalist of the Year
- Student Journalist of the Year
- Designer of the Year
- Photographer of the Year
- Sports Photographer of the Year
- Scoop of the Year
- Campaign of the Year
- Multimedia Publisher of the Year
- Newspaper of the Year
- Specialist Writer of the Year
- The Felix Dearden Reporting on Race Award
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