Mainland Britain’s most northerly newspaper is among the contenders for a prestigious regional media award.

The Scottish Press Awards has revealed the shortlist for its Weekly Newspaper of the Year category, with the John O’Groat Journal among the nominees.

The Journal will face competition from reigning champion the Lennox Herald, as well as the Ayrshire Post, Largs and Millport Weekly News and the Inverness Courier.

The winner will be revealed during the 43rs Scottish Press Awards ceremony, to be held on 21 September at DoubleTree by Hilton Glasgow Central.

Denise West, chair of the Scottish Press Awards judges, said: “The quality of entries was as high as ever, and a tremendous reflection on the skill and effort of journalists and publishers across Scotland in meeting the undiminished challenges facing the sector.

“The judges had a difficult task producing the final shortlist and my thanks go to them all for the rigorous way they set about the challenge.”

John McLellan director of awards organiser the Scottish Newspaper Society, added: “As ever, the Scottish Newspaper Society is extremely grateful to Denise and all our judges for giving up their valuable time to select our finalists, and to our sponsors and our programme coordinators Event Consultants Scotland who without whom the awards would not be the great success they are.”

Most of the shortlist for the forthcoming awards was revealed last month.