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Multiple award winner chalks up another prize

An award-winning reporter has been handed another prize for exceptional performance in the National Qualification for Journalism exam, making it his fifth NCTJ award in a year.

Paul Berentzen, crime reporter at the Blackpool Gazette, was awarded the Pamela Meyrick Award for the best NQJ candidate of the year working on a newspaper in the North of England or North Wales.

Previously, Paul won three out of the four prizes available for performance in the July NQJ exams, winning the Ted Bottomley Award for media law and practice, the Esso Award for his news report, and the Society of Editors’ Award for his news interview.

He was also named as the NCTJ trainee of the year in November as part of the Awards for Excellence sponsored by NFL UK.

Said Paul: “I was delighted to hear I had won this award. It was unexpected but a very welcome early Christmas present. It is good to see all the hard work put in by journalists is still being recognised.”

This award is presented in memory of Pamela Meyrick, the first woman reporter on the Rochdale Observer from 1944 to 1948.