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Review of 2009: Those who made a difference

Despite staffing cutbacks and diminishing resources, the local press has continued to fight its readers’ corner through 2009 by running campaigns and investigations while journalists themselves have also done their own work for charity.

Their dedication to the cause has also been recognised at the plethora of awards ceremonies for the press and media, not least EDF Energy’s three annual prize givings, run in association with HoldtheFrontPage.

Jon Austin, investigations reporter with Basildon daily the Echo, not only won EDF Energy’s journalist of the year for a third year running in January, but he also continued his undercover stings around south Essex.

As a result of his investigations: A kennel closed down after he exposed appalling conditions and rotting corpses left in a freezer; a primary school governor resigned following Jon’s revelations about his murky criminal past; and police arrested an accountant on fraud charges after Jon secretly filmed the man giving him financial advice.

Jon had been contacted by a local woman claiming the accountant was refusing to return £300,000 she had invested with him.

In campaigning news, a crusade initially launched by Huddersfield Daily Examiner journalist Adrian Sudbury, who died of leukaemia in August 2008, continued to gather pace this year.

Adrian was fighting for compulsory education in sixth form colleges about organ, blood and bone marrow donation and earlier this month children’s secretary Ed Balls announced that £165,000 would be pumped into a scheme to train volunteer tutors to speak to students across the UK.

Journalists spend many hours writing about charity fundraisers and 2009 saw our fair share of hacks’ own heartfelt efforts to generate some cash.

Following two cancelled attempts due to poor weather, Herts Advertiser editor Matt Adams finally jumped out of plane in September for a local hospice charity.

Ipswich daily the Evening Star launched a fundraising campaign in the wake of the murder of five prostitutes in the Suffolk town. Readers donated more than £70,000 which is enabling local organisations to help young women break the cycle of addiction and prostitution.

Several reporters signed up for some serious mileage when they took on the world’s biggest half marathon, the Great North Run in October, for a hospice, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and premature baby charity Bliss.

In the wider news arena, 2009 will be remembered for the credit crunch and recession, and many local titles ran campaigns aimed at boosting the economy and jobs markets on their patches.

The Sunderland Echo and Grimsby Telegraph bookended 2009 by offering free job ads in a special one-off supplement while the Southern Daily Echo ran a matching service, showcasing the talents of local people who were unemployed.

The awards calendar took an early blow in March when the Newspaper Society announced it was cancelling its three annual ceremonies, including the prestigious Weekly Newspaper Awards.

The NS said at the time it was reviewing its entire awards structure but, nine months later, there have been no further announcements about reinstatement of any or all of the awards.

The Tom Corder Awards, for almost 30 years the yardstick for quality journalism in north-east England, underwent a revamp for 2009.

Usually held in April, organisers announced that the 28th annual ceremony was to be postponed until the autumn due to the “pressures and uncertainties” of the regional press industry.

When the team announced the call for entries in October, journalists saw the usual 22 categories cut down to ten, entry fees had been scrapped and the fancy dinner had been replaced by a buffet.

By way of contrast, telecommunications giant O2 continued to expand its portfolio of media awards in the north of England.

It now runs three regional ceremonies, covering Greater Manchester and Lancashire, Cheshire and Merseyside and Yorkshire and The Humber.

Elsewhere, Stockport Express editor Mandy Leigh picked up a prize for the North West’s top newspaper – beating big sister the Manchester Evening News – in the same week she took redundancy as part of a company restructure.

Paul Delmar, photographer lecturer at Norton College in Sheffield, won a lifetime achievement award for 30 years of educating the nation’s new breed of press photographers – and a very popular decision it appeared too, judging by our readers’ comments.

  • Come back for our final Review of 2009 when we will remember those who are no longer with us.