In celebration of the best of national, regional and digital journalism from across the country, nine new awards have been introduced for 2021 - bringing the total number of categories up to 33. The new categories are:
- Specialist Reporter
- Student Journalist
- Food and Drink Writer
- Travel Writer
- Best Coverage of a Live Event
- News Website
- Daily Newspaper of the Year
- Sunday Newspaper of the Year
- Chairman’s Award
Shortlists for the Daily Newspaper of the Year, Sunday Newspaper of the Year and Journalist of the Year awards have not been announced, and instead the winners will be announced on the night. The shortlist for the Weekly Newspaper of the Year will be revealed in August.
This year’s judging panel was led by Denise West - previous Managing Director of Scottish Daily Record and Sunday Mail Ltd, and Chief Commercial Officer of DC Thomson Media.
Denise was joined by 36 independent judges - which comprised of 21 women and 15 men - from across the Scottish media, communications and public affairs industries.
Denise West, chair of the Scottish Press Awards judges, said: “Every sector has faced a crisis in the past 18 months and the Scottish press was no different. As the country went into lockdown the role of independent news publishing was to keep the supply of trusted news flowing nationally and locally, so people could understand what was happening to them and to maintain open accountability at a time when democracy itself was closing down.
"From the entries to this year’s Scottish Press Awards, it’s clear that this was a challenge fully met by Scottish journalists up and down the country in the most trying of circumstances. The shortlists contain the very best of 2020’s work, but we should applaud the achievement of everyone in the industry, not just our finalists.
"The judges face a daunting task to select winners from some superb entries and we very much hope to congratulate our winners in person at the presentation night on September 29th.”
The 42nd Scottish Press Awards are sponsored by VisitScotland, Royal Bank of Scotland, Diageo, Johnnie Walker Princes Street, Openreach, BIG Partnership, DoubleTree by Hilton Glasgow Central, Event Consultants Scotland, SGN and Women in Journalism Scotland.
The awards ceremony and dinner will take place at the DoubleTree by Hilton Glasgow Central on Wednesday 29 September 2021.
Click here to view the shortlist.
Keep up-to-date with publishing news: sign up here for InPubWeekly, our free weekly e-newsletter.
