ALLMEDIASCOTLAND apologises: to Nicola Barry. Last week, The Press and Journal writer won the Columnist of the Year title at the Press Gazette Regional Press Awards. We should have spotted it earlier.
What’s more, it was her second, consecutive win and, to take the title she, had to fight off competition from columnists at the Liverpool Echo, Yorkshire Evening Post, the Evening Herald in Plymouth, Nottingham Evening Post and the Derby Evening Telegraph. She is believed to be the only columnist in the award’s 19-year history to win the award two years running.
Said Press and Journal editor, Derek Tucker: “We are tremendously proud of Nicola’s achievement in winning this prestigious award for a second consecutive year, especially bearing in mind the tough competition from around the country.”
Added Ian Reeves, editor of Press Gazette: “It is a fantastic achievement for anybody to win the award once but when it is back-to-back it shows that she is obviously a columnist who is very much at the height of her powers. The fact that two different independent judging panels on two consecutive years have picked her is a great tribute to her.”
