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Awards handed out by Iliffe as expanded group rewards editorial staff

Iliffe News and Media has announced the winners of its first group-wide Editorial Excellence awards scheme.

The launch of the awards follows the independent group’s expansion through acquisition of daily and weekly titles in the Midlands and the east of England.

The winners and those highly commended will receive their awards at a presentation lunch in Milton Keynes on February 1.

A panel of independent judges was recruited to select the winners in 12 of the 13 categories with the overall Special Achievement Award being selected by group chief executive David Fordham.

The independent judges were Peter Sands, director of the Editorial Centre and PA Training, Bob Satchwell, executive director of the Society of Editors, and Matthew Fearn, deputy picture editor of the Sunday Telegraph.

The winners and those commended are:

Reporter of the Year
Rachel Extance, Cambridge Evening News
Commended – Tom Sloan, Burton Mail, and Clive Gresswell, Bedfordshire on Sunday.

Young Reporter of the Year
Rob Gibson, MK News

Sport Journalist of the Year
Robert Moore, Hertfordshire Mercury

Features/Specialist Writer of the Year
Alice Ryan, Cambridge Evening News
Commended – Nik Shelton, Cambridge Evening News

Photographer of the Year
Keith Jones, Cambridge Evening News
Commended – Geoff Merryweather, Staffordshire Newspapers, and Warren Gunn, Cambridge Evening News

Front Page of the Year
Cambridge Evening News for a splash highlighting the effects of smoking on a dying woman

Web Scoop of the Year
Herts and Essex Observer for breaking story on a triple murder

Scoop of the Year
Cambridge Evening News for revealing the sex change secrets of both the city’s new mayor and mayoress

Supplement of the Year
Burton Mail with a 72-page Mother’s Day special containing hundred of drawings of mum submitted by children

Campaign of the Year
Cambridge Evening News for its campaign to save a crucial Hospice at Home nursing service. Commendations – Hertfordshire Mercury for its Air Ambulance Fight for Life campaign, and Burton Mail for its Macmillan £1 to work campaign.

Headline of the Year
Roger Spiller, MK News, for his headline following the sighting of a pair of rare birds – “Egrets – we’ve had too few, but now at last we’ve two to mention.”

Magazine of the Year
‘Stafford Remembered’ – nostalgia magazine
Commended – East Anglian Weddings magazine.

Special Achievement Award
MK News for the success of its relaunch that has helped inspire its growth within its region.

David Fordham, chief executive of Iliffe News and Media, said: “I am delighted that we are able to celebrate some of the excellent individual and team work that helps to make our newspapers so special.

“There is so much we do that is of a quality that deserves to be recognised and these annual awards seek to do just that.”

The awards are now set to become an annual event across the Iliffe group.