The five papers with the highest number of votes are, in alphabetical order: Daily Mail, News of the World, The Guardian, The Mail on Sunday and The Sunday Times.
The winner will be revealed at the sold-out awards gala dinner at the Savoy on April 5.
The Press Awards, organised by the Society of Editors are judged by a 120-strong ‘academy’ of senior journalists that includes the editors and managing editors of the national titles for the coveted Newspaper of the Year category. They choose the winner by a secret vote.
The judges were chaired for the third year by Bob Satchwell (pictured), executive director of the Society of Editors. He said: “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.”
Each awards category other than National Newspaper of the Year and International Journalist of the Year is judged by a separate panel who do not know the results of other categories.
The society has taken over the awards on behalf of the industry at the invitation of the Newspaper Publishers Association. Proceeds from the award will help to fund the society’s work on media freedom and also support the Journalists’ Charity.
The Press Awards replace the British Press Awards.
