Birmingham-based Sunday Mercury has taken the top spot at a national celebration of regional press journalism, scooping the trophy for Regional Newspaper of the Year.

Judges of the Newspaper Society's Circulation, Editorial and Promotions Awards 2008 said that the Mercury editorial team 'scored an astonishing selection of splashes', which secured its place as winner of the principal award.

Taking silver and bronze for the Regional Newspaper of the Year accolade respectively were daily-turned weekly Bath Chronicle and The News in Portsmouth. Yorkshire Post Newspapers became another big winner of the night, leaving with four trophies including Photographer of the Year James Hardisty.

Other victories included:

Journalist of the year – Richard Elias, Scotland on Sunday

Design & Layout of the Year - Bath Chronicle

Promotional campaign of the year, daily and Sunday papers – Western Mail

Scoop of the year, daily and Sunday papers – Cambridge Evening News

Campaigning newspaper of the year, weekly papers – Chorley & Leyland Guardian

Innovative newspaper of the year – Evening Telegraph (Derby)

Community newspaper of the year, weekly papers – Weston & Somerset Mercury

Click here for the full list of editorial winners, runner-up and nominees.

Held at Crewe Hall in Cheshire last night, the awards were compered by newspaper sales director of the Leicester Mercury, Carolyn MacKinnon-Ure.

Newspaper Society director David Newell said: "This year's awards ceremony was an extremely well-attended event that showcased just some of the many successes achieved by NS members during the past 12 months.

"The quality of work from the circulation, editorial and promotions departments has proved to be outstanding yet again."

Matthew Buxton, national account manager for Newspaper and Magazines at Getty Images, was a member of the judging panel for the CEP Awards.

He said: "I was really impressed with the superb entries and was struck by the quality and depth of the work. It made choosing the winners a hard decision."

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