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Journalist scores print and digital double at county media awards

A weekly journalist scored a print and digital double at an awards ceremony celebrating a county’s best media.

David Gazet, senior reporter at the Kent Messenger and its sister website Kent Online, won both the Print Journalist of the Year and Best Use of Social Media titles at this year’s Kent Press & Broadcast Awards.

David’s were two of seven awards won by journalists and titles from the independent KM Group, with the Dartford Messenger and Gravesend Messenger jointly taking the Newspaper of the year crown.

Organised by Kent PR agency Maxim, the awards were presented at a ceremony hosted by former Newsnight presenter Gavin Esler at Kent County Cricket Club’s home ground in Canterbury.

The winners at this year's awards

The winners at this year’s awards

Maxim’s Rachel Knight said: “We feel it is important to recognise how hard the local media work, especially with the demand to produce so many different types of content, generally with fewer resources, increasing year-on-year.

“We had 129 entries this year, many of them from multimedia journalists who are asked to produce audio, film, images, social media posts, not to mention copy appropriate for print and online.”

The full results are as follows:

Best Use of Social Media
Winner: David Gazet, Kent Messenger/KentOnline
Highly commended: Luke May, Kentish Times

Broadcast Journalist of the Year
Winner: Colin Campbell, BBC South East
Highly commended: Josie Hannett, KMTV/KentOnline

Campaign of the Year
Winner: Dover Express – Kelly Turner
Highly commended: Folkestone Herald – Leas Lift

Columnist of the Year
Winner: Nikki White, Medway Messenger
Highly commended: Alex Claridge (Harry Bell), Kentish Gazette Series

Digital Journalist of the Year
Winner: Kathy Bailes, The Isle of Thanet News
Highly commended: David Gazet, Kent Messenger

Feature Journalist of the Year
Winner: Samuel Supple, BBC South East Today & Inside Out
Highly commended: John Nurden, Sheerness Times Guardian

Magazine Design(er) of the Year
Winner: ‘Cene
Highly commended: Samantha Barton, Kent Life

Magazine of the Year
Winner: Isle Magazine
Highly commended: insideKENT

Newspaper Design(er) of the Year
Winner: Ashley Austen, KM Media Group
Highly commended: Debbie Neech, KM Media Group

Newspaper of the Year
Winner: Dartford Messenger and Gravesend Messenger

Press Photographer of the Year
Winner: Andy Jones, KM Media Group
Highly commended: Matthew Walker, KM Media Group/freelance

Print Journalist of the Year
Winner: David Gazet, Kent Messenger
Highly commended: Tom Acres, Dartford Messenger & Gravesend Messenger

Sports Journalist of the Year
Winner: Neil Bell, BBC South East
Highly commended: Matthew Panting, KM Media Group

Young Journalist of the Year
Winner: Josie Hannett, KMTV/KentOnline
Highly commended: Amy Nickalls, Folkestone Herald/Kent Live