A regional “newsroom hero” has won a national honour for his commitment to helping new reporters with their training.

Paul Derrick, head of multimedia news at the Bury Free Press and Suffolk News, was presented with the NCTJ’s Chairman’s Award at the charity’s annual Awards for Excellence ceremony this afternoon.

Paul, pictured, had been nominated for the prize by trainee reporter Tamika Green, while his editor Barry Peters has praised him for “giving his trainees time, support and feedback so they can flourish”.

He was presented with the award by John Ryley, head of Sky News, in the absence of NCTJ chairman Kim Fletcher.

John said: “This year’s Chairman’s Award winner is a representative of the hundreds of unsung heroes and heroines in the newsroom.

“These are the people who go above and beyond to support their trainees, often quietly, providing encouragement, a sounding board and reinforcement of what’s really important in the day-to-day, bread and butter of news gathering and reporting.

“It’s not usually in the job description. There’s no reward or recognition. But there is pride in seeing rookies transformed into professional senior journalists who go on to achieve great things in their careers.

“Paul Derrick is our newsroom hero.”

Paul did his NCTJ training in Sheffield under the direction of Liz Nice, before his formative reporting years in Scarborough News under Ed Asquith’s editorship.

He joined editor Barry Peters and the team at Bury 13 years ago.

Nominating Paul for the award, Tamika said: “I am nominating Paul for this award because he is a key figure in the newsroom, taking on a mentoring role for all the trainees on the team, whilst also carrying out his job as head of multimedia news for Suffolk News and the Bury Free Press.

“Paul is always patient and finds time to answer anyone’s questions. He often stops what he’s doing to read through stories that me or the other trainees are unsure about and give feedback both for the story at hand and beyond.

“Paul genuinely wants all the trainees to be the best they possibly can, and tries to instil self-confidence in us.

“I would like him to see that his hard work has been recognised and that we are grateful for his help and support.

“Everyone is in awe of how Paul balances all the demands of the newsroom whilst taking a major role in the training of journalists.”

Student, trainee and apprentice journalists were also honoured for their work at the ceremony, held at Twickenham Stadium.

The full list of winners is as follows:

Innovation of the Year
News Associates

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Award
Ability Today’s Academy for Disabled Journalists

Student News Journalism
Olivia Snelson, University of Salford

Trainee News Journalism
Melissa Sigodo, Daily Mirror

Student Sports Journalism
Um-E-Aymen Babar, News Associates London

Trainee Sports Journalism
Ji-Min Lee, Wokingham Today

Student Top Scoop
Bartholomew Hall, University of Kent

Trainee Top Scoop
Albert Tait, Henley Standard

Student Features
Jack Walton, News Associates Manchester

Trainee Features
Georgina Quach, Financial Times

Student Podcast
Isabella Jewell, University of Salford

Trainee Podcast
Bobby Twidale, freelance journalist

Student Data Journalism
Sharmeen Ziauddin, Kingston University

Trainee Data Journalism
Eamon Farhat, Bloomberg

Best Student Project
Jack Kinsella, Liverpool John Moores University

Community News Project Award
Daniella Theis, Greenock Telegraph

Apprentice of the Year
Daniel Kane, talkSPORT/PA Training

Student of the Year
Charley Bergman, Leeds Trinity University

Trainee of the Year
Amy Austin, Financial Times

Chairman’s Award
Paul Derrick, Bury Free Press/Suffolk News