A journalist has paid tribute to lonely regional press colleagues after winning a national award.

The Association for Online Publishing has unveiled Robyn Vinter, of the Yorkshire Post, as the winner of its Local Hero Award for Regional Digital Journalism at the Digital Publishing Awards 2020.

Natasha Meek, of the Bradford Telegraph & Argus, was highly commended in the category.

There was also success at the awards for JPIMedia, publisher of the Leeds-based Post, which triumphed in the Product Development Team of the Year category.

The other nominees in the Local Hero category were Basingstoke Gazette editor Katie French, Herald & Times Group journalist Caroline Wilson, the Hereford Times and Lucy Ashton, who is a local democracy reporter at Sheffield daily the Star.

Robyn, pictured, told HTFP: “I’m really chuffed to have won.

“The competition was incredibly tough and I was up against some amazing local and regional journalists, people who I really admire and whose work I have followed.

“This has obviously been an extremely hard time for local reporters, many of whom currently spend all day alone, staring at a wall in their spare bedroom and speaking to people who have suffered personal tragedy, meanwhile, in a lot of cases, having the threat of redundancy hovering over and the occasional deluge of online abuse.

“Local reporters are, without exception, incredibly resilient and I’m thankful that the AOP Awards recognises the work that we do and how vital we are to our communities.”