The Cambridge Evening News has won the title of Daily Newspaper of the Year at the EDF Energy East of England Media Awards today.

The title also won the award for Community Campaign of the Year, for its work on for its free bus fare campaign, On the Buses.

The Hoddesdon & Broxbourne Mercury and Cheshunt & Waltham Mercury scooped the best paid-for weekly award, while the best free weekly was The Comet series.

Competition for the daily category was high and there were some very strong editions submitted. But the judges went for the Cambridge paper for its strong news content and an approach that was described as “punchy, without trying to be too flashy”.

The sister Mercury weeklies impressed the judges for being a “lively publication with a good mix of content and clean design”.

The judges liked The Comet’s “strong, eye-catching front pages”, while its overall content was described as “engaging” and with a “strong community feel”.

The Evening Star, Ipswich, won two awards, taking the title for Newcomer of the Year, thanks to Rebecca Lefort, and Front Page of the Year for “NHS RIP”.

As demonstrators went to London to protest about the state of the health service the Evening Star decided to capture the moment with an image of powerful words etched into a tombstone.

From Rebecca’s entry, the judges singled out her strong, remarkable and well-written story about a 47st man who she interviewed after he posted a comment on her dieting blog.

The BBC did well in the broadcast categories, winning three of the four on offer. BBC Norfolk provided both the Radio Journalist of the Year and Radio News/Current Affairs Programme of the Year, as well as the TV News/Current Affairs Programme of the Year.

The awards were presented by Essex county cricket club all-rounder Graham Napier at the Suffolk Showground today.

The winners were chosen from more than 200 entries – a record for these awards.

The full list of winners is below:

Daily Newspaper of the Year –
Cambridge Evening News

Weekly Newspaper of the Year (Paid-for) –
Hoddesdon & Broxbourne Mercury/Cheshunt
& Waltham Mercury

Weekly Newspaper of the Year (Free) –
The Comet

Print Journalist of the Year (Daily) –
Jon Austin
Basildon Echo

Print Journalist of the Year (Weekly) –
Steve Neale
Yellow Advertiser

Radio Journalist of the Year –
Paul Moseley
BBC Radio Norfolk

Television Journalist of the Year –
Malcolm Robertson
Anglia TV East

Newcomer of the Year –
Rebecca Lefort
Evening Star, Ipswich

Front Page of the Year –
Evening Star, Ipswich

Radio News/Current Affairs Programme of the Year –
Stephen Bumfrey
BBC Radio Norfolk

TV News/Current Affairs Programme of the Year –
Julian Sturdy
BBC Inside Out

Website of the Year –
Archant Herts & Cambs

Feature Writer of the Year –
Jemma Walton
Peterborough Evening Telegraph

Columnist of the Year –
Karl Minns
Norwich Evening News

News Photographer of the Year –
Bill Smith
Archant

Sports Journalist of the Year –
Derek Davis
East Anglian Daily Times

Business Journalist of the Year –
Chris Starkie
Eastern Daily Press

Environmental Journalist of the Year –
Paul Brackley
Hertfordshire Mercury

Community Campaign of the Year –
Cambridge Evening News