Editorial talent from the East of England is being invited to dust off their cuttings and rewind their tapes to enter a new awards scheme for the regional media.

Entries are now being sought for the EDF Energy East of England Media Awards, being run in association with holdthefrontpage.co.uk.

Invitations have gone out to journalists across the region to attract the very best work from regional newspapers, radio and television.

Cash prizes are up for grabs, with £100 on offer for individual winners, as well as trophies, certificates and the thrill of being hailed as “the best”.

The awards presentation event itself will be held in January at the Stansted Radisson, in the heart of the region being covered by the awards, which takes in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire and parts of Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire.

Claire Byrd, regional media manager for EDF Energy, said: “We are delighted to be sponsoring these awards to recognise the best journalism in the East of England.

“EDF Energy has strong local ties in the area as we distribute power to 3.4m customers across the East of England. This new initiative builds on these links.

“The EDF Energy East of England Media Awards provide a wonderful opportunity for the talent of local print and broadcast journalists to be recognised more fully. We successfully launched a similar awards scheme in the South West earlier this year and were delighted with the level of entries we received.

“We know how competitive journalists in the East of England can be so hope to have even more entries this time.”

The high standard of journalism among the morning, evening and weekly newspapers is clear to see, while the broadcast media in television and local radio are second to none. All we need is your help to let us highlight that work on HoldtheFrontPage, and bring success to your company.

HoldtheFrontPage publisher Patrick Astill said: “We’re looking forward to seeing the very best of the excellent work produced day in, day out by all branches of the media in this region.

“If the standard is anything like as high as with our previous awards, in the south west, the judges will have an equally tough time deciding on the winners.”

He added that EDF Energy’s sponsorship and support was key to making the competition and ceremony the success it deserved to be.

All shortlisted nominees and their colleagues will be invited to lunch and drinks as a guest of the sponsors, EDF Energy, on January 30.

The application form can be downloaded and printed out from here. It also contains some guidelines to help you enter.

There are 17 categories available, and you can enter – free – as many times as you wish in whichever categories are appropriate.

All we ask is that each entry is accompanied by a separate entry form.

Community Campaign of the Year

All work submitted must be from 2005, so dig out your cuttings and tapes and get your entries in early.

The panel of judges will be announced soon, so check back regularly to see which industry experts will be going over your work.

Entries must be received by 5pm on Friday December 16, 2005.

They should be sent to Patrick Astill,
HoldtheFrontPage,
NEP,
Ground Floor,
East Point,
Cardinal Square,
10 Nottingham Road,
Derby DE1 3QT.

If you have any questions or queries about the awards or the event itself, please e-mail [email protected].

The Western Morning News team collect their prize for Daily Newspaper of the Year at the South West awards

Cornish Guardian editor Alan Cooper with the prize for best weekly

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Have you won a press award? We’d love to hear from you. E-mail [email protected]