The Yorkshire Post has been crowned Newspaper of the Year in the Regional Newspaper Awards.The paper beat Free Newspaper of the Year The Wharf, and the Wiltshire Gazette & Herald, which was named Weekly Newspaper of the Year.

The Yorkshire Post was shortlisted in nine categories and won three outright, also scooping the prize for Daily/Sunday Newspaper of the Year and Team of the Year.

Two journalists from the Plymouth Evening Herald took awards back to the westcountry, with health reporter Mary O’Leary being named Specialist Reporter of the Year and Martin Freeman scooping Feature Writer of the Year.

Martin, who has been with the Evening Herald for six years, said: “I am so lucky to work for an excellent newspaper, in an excellent newsy area, with such open and honest people who are prepared to talk.”

Mary, who has been with the Herald for three years, said: “I want to pay particular thanks to my editor Alan Qualtrough for his outstanding support, and to my deputy editor Bill Martin, my news editor during the time I wrote these stories for his continuous advice, help, and encouragement.”

A stunning image of a lamb caked in mud at the height of the foot-and-mouth crisis won the Eastern Daily Press the award for Front Page of the Year.

Judges praised the EDP for taking a “heart-rending image of a lamb covered in mud and turning it into a symbol of the misery caused by the foot-and-mouth disaster” and creating an “unforgettable front page”.

And editor Mike Lowe said of the Bristol Evening Post’s Campaign of the Year Clubsafe, to protect young women from danger: “This was a brilliantly conceived campaign by Chris Maguire, which has made a difference to the safety of women throughout Bristol and the surrounding area.

The full list of winners in the Press Gazette-sponsored event was:

Newspaper of the Year
Yorkshire Post

Weekly Newspaper of the Year
Wiltshire Gazette & Herald

Daily/Sunday Newspaper of the Year
Yorkshire Post

Evening Newspaper of the Year
Evening Star, Ipswich

Free Newspaper of the Year
The Wharf

Business Journalist of the Year
Paul Rogerson, Business a.m.

Reporter of the Year
Sharon Edwards, Lincolnshire Echo

Columnist of the Year
Faith Eckersall, Daily Echo, Bournemouth

Young journalist of the Year
Ian Fannon, Evening Advertiser, Swindon

Photographer of the Year
Bill Smyth, Irish News

Sports photographer of the Year
Steve Ellis, The Star, Sheffield

Sports journalist of the Year
Matthew Reeder, Yorkshire Evening Post

Feature writer of the Year
Martin Freeman, Evening Herald, Plymouth

Specialist reporter of the Year
Mary O’Leary, Evening Herald, Plymouth

Scoop of the Year
Katherine Barker, Express & Echo, Exeter, ‘Phoenix the calf’

Team of the Year
Yorkshire Post, September 11 coverage

Community Campaign of the Year
Evening Post, Bristol, ‘Club Safe’

Front Page of the Year
Eastern Daily Press, ‘Enough’

Business and Financial Newspaper of the Year
Business a.m.

Website of the Year
This is Brighton and Hove – The Argus, Brighton

Supplement of the Year
West Country Life – Western Daily Press

Back to the awards index

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