The Mail on Sunday Scoops Press Awards Gongs
The Mail on Sunday scooped a clutch of gongs at the Society of Editors Press Awards which celebrate the best in national newspaper journalism.
The Mail on Sunday won seven awards including the newspaper of the year title, scoop of the year, n news team of the year, news reporter of the year for Guantanamo campaign reporter David Rose as well as sharing the sports team of the year title with its sister title for MailSport.
Other big winners were The Guardian, The Times and the Sunday Times in the awards which were spread across the national newspaper titles. The awards were held at a ceremony at London’s Hilton on Park Lane.
Chairman of the judges, executive director of the Society of Editors, Bob Satchwell, said: “The awards demonstrate the importance and quality of the British Press. They are the answer to the critics who seek to silence our newspapers. This is the best of UK newspaper journalism, which is the best in the world.”
The paper also won scoop of the year for its exclusive ‘Blood Money’ investigation that revealed Thomas Cook had received around ten times the compensation awarded to the parents of two children who died from carbon monoxide poisoning in a Corfu hotel villa booked through the travel agent.
Reporter David Rose was awarded the news reporter of the Year accolade, in part, for his Guantanamo campaign and interview with released prisoner Shaker Aamer. The paper also saw Ian Birrell awarded the foreign reporter of the year. Birrell was also awarded the columnist of the year for work in the Daily Mail, The Independent and The Sun. Cole Moreton was awarded the interviewer of the year award for popular papers.
The Guardian took home five awards with Sarah Boseley winning the science and health journalist of the year award for her coverage of the Ebola crisis, Marina O’Loughlin winning critic of the year, Tom Jenkins sports photographer of the year. The paper also won the website of the year title for the second year running and supplement of the year for The Guardian Weekend Magazine.
The Times collected four awards in recognition of its first-class team of journalists. Matthew Syed won sports journalist of the year, Martin Fletcher, feature writer of the year for broadsheet platforms, Morten Morland for columnist of the year and Rachel Sylvester for political writer of the year.
Sunday Times writers were awarded the interviewer of the year prize for Camilla Long, columnist of the year for Dominic Lawson and photographer of the year for Manu Brabo. The Sun collected the front page of the year award for its ‘Busted’ front page showing peer Lord Sewel. The Sun also won the specialist journalist of the year award for consumer reporter Dan Jones.
The Financial Times won the business and finance journalist of the year award for reporter Richard Milne’s coverage of the Volkswagen scandal and the paper was also awarded the digital innovation award for its wearable technology project.
The Daily Mail’s Charity Cold-Calling campaign was also awarded the Cudlipp Award for campaigning journalism. MailSport shared the sports team title with its sister paper and Guy Adams of the Daily Mail won the feature writer of the year award for popular papers. Nicola Methven of the Daily Mirror was named showbiz reporter and The Daily Telegraph’s Tom Rowley was awarded the young journalist of the year prize.
The Irish Ambassador to the UK, Daniel Mulhall, was awarded the Journalists’ Charity chairman’s award for his support for the charity and the Georgina Henry women in journalism prize for innovation went to journalist Amie Ferris-Rotman. Amie’s proposal was to progress the project Sahar Speaks: a programme to train and support Afghan female journalists.
The evening also saw Amol Rajan, editor of The Independent, Lisa Markwell of The Independent on Sunday and Oly Duff of the i take to the stage to pick up the chairman’s award for their titles in recognition of the contribution of all three to journalism as the titles come to the end of their lives in print or move on to new ownership.