An independently-owned weekly overcame the big boys last night to be crowned Yorkshire’s Newspaper of the Year at the region’s annual O2 Awards.

The Rotherham Advertiser beat off the challenge of the Yorkshire Evening Post and other daily titles to scoop the accolade in a ceremony held at York Racecourse.

There were also two wins apiece for the Yorkshire Post and The Star, Sheffield at the ceremony, attended by Michael Parkinson and Peter Stringfellow among other Yorkshire celebrities.

Advertiser editor Doug Melloy put his paper’s triumph down to its determination to maintain editorial standards – and to not having made any journalists redundant.

He said: “The Rotherham Advertiser, like newspapers up and down the country, has gone through a challenging period because of reduced revenues in difficult economic times.

“But unlike the major groups, we have avoided the ‘R’ word, redundancy, among journalists and instead vowed to maintain editorial standards and content.

“These awards are a well-deserved recognition of the fantastic output of our whole editorial team, who week after week turn out fantastic newspapers any editor would be proud of.

“These awards, which acknowledge their dedication and professionalism, belong to them and they should feel very proud.”

The ceremony also saw two awards handed out for outstanding contributions to the regional media industry.

The recipients were George Robinson, who retired last year as editor of the Worksop Guardian, and Hannah Postles of the Pontefract and Castleford Express, who was nominated for her inspirational leadership and mentoring skills.

This year’s awards attracted more than 250 individual entries across a range of categories covering print and broadcast journalism, photography, teamwork and digital media.

The full list of winners was as follows:

Young Journalist of the Year (Weeklies): Karl Hansell – Whitby Gazette

Young Journalist of the Year (Dailies): Ruth Mosalski – Halifax Courier

Think Big Media Award: Sarah Whitehead

Scoop of the Year: Real Radio Yorkshire

Radio Broadcaster of the Year: James Vincent – BBC Radio Sheffield

TV Broadcast Journalist of the Year: Jon Hill – ITV Yorkshire

Outstanding Contribution Award: George Robinson – Worksop Guardian and Mansfield Observer, Hannah Postles – Pontefract and Castleford Express

Feature Writer of the Year: Martin Smith – The Star, Sheffield

Digital Journalist of the Year:  Graham Walker – The Star, Sheffield

Photographer of the Year: Stephen Garnett – Craven Herald

Business Journalist of the Year:  Greg Wright – Yorkshire Post

Sports Journalist of the Year: Richard Sutcliffe – Yorkshire Post

News Reporter of the Year: Nicola Rees – BBC Look North

Editorial Team of the Year: BBC Radio Sheffield

Weekly Newspaper of the Year: Rotherham Advertiser

Daily Newspaper of the Year: Yorkshire Evening Post

O2 Newspaper of the Year: Rotherham Advertiser