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Regional dailies face national competition for campaign award

Two regional dailies will face national competition after being nominated for best campaign of 2016 in the British Media Awards.

Both the Birmingham Mail and the Eastern Daily Press have been shortlisted in the Editorial Campaign of the Year category, where they will face competition from the likes of The Guardian and the BBC.

The Mail has been nominated for its ‘Justice for the 21′ campaign, led by content editor Andy Richards, which has successfully fought for legal funding for the families of the 21 victims of the 1974 IRA pub bombings.

The EDP’s ‘Mental Health Watch’ campaign aims to ger better mental health provision for Norfolk and Suffolk, as well as ending the stigma surrounding mental health issues by raising awareness of the problem.

EDP fund

Mail editor Marc Reeves said: “Andy Richards’s fine work on the Mail’s pub bombing campaign has been widely applauded at several industry awards this year, and this is another great endorsement of his and the title’s efforts.

“This nomination comes just a week before the next formal milestone in the fight, with a major pre-inquest hearing setting out the scope for the main inquiry later in the year. We’ll be there, as ever, and will see this through with the families right to the end.”

The EDP is one of four Archant nominations, with its pro-European Union newspaper The New European up for Content Team of the Year, Launch of the Year and Print Product of the Year.

Matt Kelly, Archant chief content officer, said: “The four awards Archant has been shortlisted for in the British Media Awards are testament to all our hard work, creativity and brilliant journalism. We look forward – focused as we are with great positivity and ambition – to doing even more great things in 2017.”

The award ceremony will be held at the Hilton Park Lane, in London, on 3 May.