Honours were shared among the pride of the press from the Eastern Counties Newspaper Group as more than 1,300 staff partied at Alexandra Palace for the company’s awards night.

Guests at the glittering ceremony saw the Eastern Daily Press pick up the prestigious “Q Cup” for its commitment and consistent delivery of a high quality product throughout the year.

The paper’s deputy editor James Ruddy was also under the spotlight to receive a one-off award for his personal achievements during the past eight years, helping to improve the lives of thousands of young victims of wars in Sarajevo and Sierra Leone.

The same paper also picked up awards for the best website, innovation of the year, and its photographic team shared the top picture award prize with Andy Abbot of the East Anglian Daily Times.

The Romford Recorder was named paid-for newspaper of the year, and its reception team were also hailed as winners in their own class.

The Newham Recorder saw reporter Susan Smith take the feature writer of the year title, while Suffolk Publishing has a successful night with the EADT Magazine named magazine of the year, and the Evening Star becoming community newspaper of the year.

The Evening Star’s Ipswich Town Tractor Boy activity took the best promotion title and EADT writer Danielle Nuttall was named news journalist of the year.