THE chief reporter at The Sunday Post newspaper has been named the first recipient of an award recognising a former editor of the paper, the late Bill Anderson.
Iain Harrison was among the winners at in-house awards run by the paper’s publishers, DC Thomson, held on Saturday evening.
Says DC Thomson of the inaugural awards: “The evening celebrated the achievements of the journalists, photographers and production teams on all of [our] newspaper titles.”
The awards were presented by TV presenter and Sunday Post columnist, Lorraine Kelly.
The Press and Journal was named Newspaper of the Year, “thanks to an unrivalled sales performance”.
In a statement issued by DC Thomson, P&J editor, Damian Bates, is quoted, as saying: “I’m extremely proud to receive the award on behalf of everyone in The Press and Journal family. The team has worked tremendously hard to drive the paper forward and achieve a substantial lift in readership and produce fantastic sales results with some great reporting and design.
“It’s not just for the reporters, subs and photographers, it is also for circulation, promotions and everyone else who helps produce and distribute the paper; they deserve this award.”
The statement continues: “The title has shown organic growth in sales from the date of the launch of the new-look compact edition on 14th January 2012. The Press and Journal, which is currently the third- highest selling regional title in the UK, is also the highest-selling morning title. It was the only daily newspaper in the UK to achieve sales growth period on period with the [Audit Bureau of Circulation] figure for January to June 2012 (68,659 copies) up 1.3 per cent (878 copies) on the previous ABC period.”
Harrison’s award was for outstanding achievement.
Editor-in-chief, Donald Martin, is quoted, saying of Harrison” “Iain can be relied upon every week to produce the goods and it is this level of consistency that is an editor’s dream.”
The others winners were:
REPORTER OF THE YEAR: Ryan Crighton, The Press and Journal
SCOOP OF THE YEAR: Kieran Andrews, Evening Telegraph
PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR: Colin Rennie, The Press and Journal
NEWS PHOTOGRAPH OF THE YEAR: Colin Rennie, The Press and Journal
PRODUCTION JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR: Amanda Richardson, Evening Telegraph
SPORTS JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR: Steve Scott, The Courier
SPORTS PHOTOGRAPH OF THE YEAR: Jim Irvine, The Press and Journal
FRONT PAGE OF THE YEAR: End This Nightmare, Evening Telegraph
HEADLINE OF THE YEAR: Anger over motion in poetry by Chris Ferguson, The Courier
FEATURE WRITER OF THE YEAR: Sally McDonald, The Sunday Post
COLUMNIST OF THE YEAR: Scott Begbie, Evening Express
CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR: Dundee: Born and Read, Evening Telegraph
SPECIALIST WRITER OF THE YEAR: Jennifer McKiernan, Political Reporter, Evening Express
YOUNG REPORTER OF THE YEAR: Niamh Burns, Evening Express
TEAM OF THE YEAR: Pre-Olympic supplement team, The Courier
UNSUNG HERO OF THE YEAR for Aberdeen: Andrew Kellock, The Press and Journal
UNSUNG HERO OF THE YEAR for Dundee: Struan Nimmo, The Courier
