The Liverpool Echo has been crowned Daily/Sunday Newspaper of the Year at this year’s Trinity Mirror Regional Awards.

The Merseyside title scooped two top prizes at the group-wide event, also picking up Best Sports Pages as judges praised an “all-round fine performance from an all-round fine newspaper”.

The Paid Weekly Newspaper of the Year award went to the Chester Chronicle, while the Bangor and Anglesey Mail picked up the award for Free Weekly Newspaper of the Year.

The Journal in Newcastle picked up two awards, for Best Feature Pages and Scoop of the Year for its ‘Prisoners Open Your Mail’ story, which judges said was a “shocking yet amusing story”.

Front Page of the Year went to the Sunday Mercury for its story on the Rover plant closure, with ‘Rust in Peace’ as its headline.

Judges described it as a “powerful epitaph to the Rover closure – one of the year’s biggest stories in the Midlands”.

Prizes were awarded across 11 categories and a full list of winners and runners-up is below.

Judges were Professor Peter Cole of Sheffield University; Bob Satchwell, director of the Society of Editors; and Peter Genower, editorial consultant and former editor of TV Times.

Regionals editorial director Neil Benson said: “The quality of entries for our awards this year, endorsed by the judging panel, illustrates that our editorial teams really have delivered.”

The winners were:

Front Page of the Year
Winner: Sunday Mercury – Rust in peace
Highly commended: Liverpool Echo – Shrine to a dead chicken
Commended: Rutherglen Reformer – Left to get home alone

Campaign of the Year
Winner: Birmingham Mail – Stop the Bullies
Highly commended: Liverpool Echo – Save Alder Hey
Commended: Huddersfield Examiner – Carbon monoxide

Scoop of the Year
Winner: The Journal – Prisoners open your mail
Highly commended: Liverpool Echo – I did it (Bulgaria murder confession)
Commended: Woodley & Earley Chronicle – I gave him my kidney, now he’s left me

Best news pages – Daily/Sunday titles
Winner: Evening Chronicle
Highly commended: Birmingham Mail
Commended: Sunday Mercury

Best features pages – Daily/Sunday titles
Winner: The Journal
Highly commended: South Wales Echo
Commended: Wales on Sunday

Best sports pages – Daily/Sunday titles
Winner: Liverpool Echo
Highly commended: The Journal
Commended: Wales on Sunday

Best news & features pages – Weekly titles
Winner: Chester Chronicle
Highly commended: Surrey Herald
Commended: Croydon Advertiser

Best sports pages – Weekly titles
Winner: Croydon Advertiser
Highly commended: Chester Chronicle series
Commended: Rutherglen Reformer

Daily/Sunday Newspaper of the Year
Winner: Liverpool Echo
Highly commended: The Journal
Commended: Birmingham Mail

Paid Weekly Newspaper of the Year
Winner: Chester Chronicle series
Highly commended: Croydon Advertiser
Commended: Rutherglen Reformer

Free Weekly Newspaper of the Year
Winner: Bangor & Anglesey Mail
Highly commended: The Press, Barnet
Commended: Birkenhead News

Back to the awards index