Five newspapers have been chosen to contest the Newspaper of the Year prize at this year's British Press Awards.
The awards – which have already announced numerous category nominees, such as for Columnist of the Year, which has two Scots, Melanie Reid and Fraser Nelson, in the running – have chosen the Daily Mail, News of the World, The Guardian, The Mail on Sunday and The Sunday Times as its shortlisted entries.
The winner will be announced on the fifth of next month.
In a statement issued by the awards organisers, the Society of Editors, Bob Satchwell, executive director of the Society, is quoted, as saying: “These five papers were ahead of the rest in terms of votes based on the judges’ own knowledge and editors’ supporting statements describing their achievements across all platforms during 2010.
“They stood out as the best of the best in a dramatic year of great scoops and audience building, and not a little controversy.
“There was the consistently successful Daily Mail that has been described as the paper that sets the bar for the rest of Fleet Street, ‘inspiring envy and admiration in equal measures’.
“The News of the World was said to set the agenda with exclusive after exclusive.
“Wikileaks put The Guardian at the top of the news headlines and some say it will change relationships between governments and the press and public forever.
“The Mail on Sunday was described as ‘consistently brave . . . with an absolute commitment to holding to account those in authority’.
“The Sunday Times was cited for fine writing alongside dogged investigative and foreign reporting.”
And Satchwell added: “It is a difficult choice but whatever the final result and however subjective the voting, it will have been based on the judges’ passion for an industry that makes the best newspapers in the world.”
