Good local coverage and campaigns, lively content and high story-counts were the winning factors in this year’s prestigious Newspaper Awards.

The annual awards ceremony, designed to celebrate and reward excellence in news media production, were held yesterday with winners in the regional categories including the London Evening Standard, the Cambridge News, and the Cumberland & Westmorland Herald.

Top-selling regional daily the Express & Star and the Hull Daily Mail lost out on Regional Newspaper of the Year (over 25,000) to the London Evening Standard, but were both highly commended after the panel decided both deserved a mention.

They beat competition from others in the category including 2012 winners The Irish News, The News (Portsmouth), and sister titles the Yorkshire Post and the Yorkshire Evening Post.

Of the Hull Daily Mail, judges said it was a “good, well-presented newspaper with great local coverage.”

As for the Express & Star, it was the paper’s high story count which impressed: “An amazing wealth of news – absolutely packed with stories. Great format and exceptional value.”

The London Evening Standard won for its production values and printing quality, and success in providing “lively content”.

In the under-25,000 category, it was the Cambridge News which came out top, with the Dorset Echo being highly recommended.

One judge said the News was “the highest quality print on the table in this category”, adding: “The publication was also praised for its strong community-based campaigns and compelling ‘newsy’ layout.”

The Cumberland & Westmorland Herald was named Weekly Newspaper of the Year, with judges saying it was “engaging, varied, interesting and visually impactful” and “absolutely jam-packed with news… it really stands out from the pack”.

They added: “These were just a couple of the comments from the panel which expressed genuine admiration for the density of its highly-detailed local news and comment. ‘An excellent weekly newspaper packed with local interest news for all age groups… it really involves and engages its community.’ Narrowly beat last year’s winner into top spot.”

Its rival publication and last year’s winner, the Cumberland News, was highly commended.

The full list of winners is as follows:

Regional Newspaper of the Year

Over 25,000 circulation
WINNER: London Evening Standard
JOINT HIGHLY COMMENDED: Express & Star, Hull Daily Mail

Under 25,000 circulation
WINNER: Cambridge News
HIGHLY COMMENDED: Dorset Echo

Weekly Newspaper of the Year

WINNER: Cumberland & Westmorland Herald
HIGHLY COMMENDED: The Cumberland News

National Newspaper of the Year

WINNER: The Daily Telegraph
HIGHLY COMMENDED: Financial Times

Printed Innovation of the Year

WINNER: The Guardian – The Bookmark
HIGHLY COMMENDED: Trinity Mirror Printing (Midlands) – XXL broadsheet posters

Weekend Newspaper of the Year

WINNER: The Sunday Times
JOINT HIGHLY COMMENDED: The Sunday Telegraph, FT Weekend

News Photograph of the Year

WINNER: The Sunday Times – John Cantlie
HIGHLY COMMENDED: London Evening Standard – Jeremy Selwyn

National Colour Supplement of the Year

WINNER: How to Spend It (Financial Times)
HIGHLY COMMENDED: Ultra Travel (The Daily Telegraph)

Regional Supplement/Magazine of the Year

WINNER: The Journal Lincolnshire (Lincolnshire Media)
HIGHLY COMMENDED: Cornwall Today (Cornwall & Devon Media/Local World)

Coldset Colour Supplement of the Year

WINNER: TV Magazine (The Sun)
HIGHLY COMMENDED: Travel (The Daily Telegraph)

Digital News Service of the Year

WINNER: guardian.co.uk
HIGHLY COMMENDED: huffingtonpost.co.uk

Digital Innovation of the Year

WINNER: Racing Post – App
HIGHLY COMMENDED: Metro – Mobile first

The Environment Award
WINNER: Guardian News & Media – Volunteering week
HIGHLY COMMENDED: Harmsworth Printing (Thurrock) – Rainwater harvesting

Newspaper App of the Year

WINNER: Racing Post iPad app
HIGHLY COMMENDED: London 24 app

Digitally Printed Newspaper of the Year

WINNER: The Sunday Times (Miller Newsprint, Malta)
HIGHLY COMMENDED: Racing Post (Stroma London)

Niche Market Newspaper of the Year
WINNER: MCN
HIGHLY COMMENDED: TMX

Newspaper Printer of The Year

WINNER: Newsprinters (The Times, The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph)
HIGHLY COMMENDED: Archant Print (Angling Times, MCN, Garden News)

International Newspaper of the Year

WINNER: Welt am Sonntag (Germany)
HIGHLY COMMENDED: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (Germany))

Lifetime Achievement

John Bird