The new-look Regional Press Awards are open for business today with no fewer than 23 categories for the cream of UK local journalism to choose from.
Entries for the awards, which are being organised by the Society of Editors in association with the Newspaper Society and HoldtheFrontPage, are now open at a dedicated website www.regionalpressawards.org.uk.
Among the prizes on offer are separate awards for the best sports journalists, photographers and news reporters on both daily and weekly newspapers alike.
And there will also be dedicated prizes for both larger and smaller circulation weeklies and dailies, in addition to the coveted overall prize of Regional Newspaper of the Year.
Entries will be open from today until Tuesday 8 March and will cost £25+VAT, with any surplus from the awards to be donated to the Journalists’ Charity. All work submitted has to have been published during 2010.
Shortlists will be published in early April and a lunchtime awards ceremony will be held in London on 11 May, to coincide with the Newspaper Society AGM and Local Newspaper Week.
The awards website has been designed to make it possible for the entry process for most of the categories to be carried out entirely online.
The full list of categories, together with entry criteria, is as follows. More information on how to enter and what the judges will be looking for in each category can be found on the website.
Open to journalists aged 26 or under on 31 December 2010. Entries may include work from any journalistic discipline.
For reporters and commentators covering all aspects of business and personal finance.
Open to sports news writers, match reporters, feature writers and columnists on daily newspapers. Entries may be from a variety of sports or one specialist area.
Open to sports news writers, match reporters, feature writers and columnists on daily newspapers. Entries may be from a variety of sports or one specialist area.
For journalists with specialisms not covered by any other category such as science, education, health, motoring, the environment and politics.
Entrants should have a regular by-lined column.
News sports and features pictures used in a daily newspaper are eligible.
News sports and features pictures used in a weekly newspaper are eligible.
For designers and graphic artists.
For a supplement published weekly monthly or at other regular intervals, either in the paper or clearly linked to a regional newspaper.
For a supplement that is published to mark a special event or achievement either with the newspaper or clearly linked to it.
This can be a team or individual award.
This can be a team or individual award.
For a project for the delivery of content through a regional or local newspaper platform that demonstrates ingenuity and innovation in the use of multi-media applications and content. This can be a team or individual award
Sign up for our free daily email bulletin
Follow HTFP on Twitter
Got a story? Email the Editor at
I think it is outrageous these awards are charging £25 per entry. How on earth can this be justified? I’ve been involved in judging some of these things, and know full well that if you are lucky you get your travel expenses and a cheese sandwich. Where does this £25 figure come from? I also find it a bit off that the awards website says details of tickets for the event itself will be made available ‘later’. Why not now – this must have already been planned and agreed as part of the budgeting process? Surely not just so you can get everyone’s £25 before they realise they will have to fork out another few hundred for a table? For a website that has been reporting the troubles in the regional press for some while, it should be obvious these awards are deeply flawed. Can you really see JP, NQ etc signing off hundreds of £25 entry fees in this climate? We will be left with a shortlist consisting of people well off enough to chuck money away. What a shame,
Report this comment
No ‘Free Newspaper of the Year’?
Report this comment