The Mail on Sunday won seven awards including the coveted Newspaper of the Year title, Scoop of the Year, News Team of the Year, News Reporter of the Year for Guantanamo campaign reporter David Rose as well as sharing the Sports Team of the Year title with its sister title for MailSport.
The awards, which celebrate the best national newspaper journalism, were handed out a glittering ceremony to celebrate the awards for 2015 at London’s Hilton on Park Lane last night.
Other big winners were The Guardian, The Times and the Sunday Times in the awards which were spread across the national newspaper titles.
Chairman of the Judges, Executive Director of the Society of Editors, Bob Satchwell, said: “The awards demonstrate the importance and quality of the British Press.
“They are the answer to the critics who seek to silence our newspapers. This is the best of UK newspaper journalism, which is the best in the world.”
In awarding the Newspaper of the Year accolade, the judges said: “With exclusive after exclusive in 2015 the Mail on Sunday consistently set the news agenda and saw its coverage picked up by other papers. It is brilliant across the board and is undoubtedly news-led with wide appeal.
“The exposés are an area that it should be incredibly proud of but its news and sport are also on top of the game.”
The decision of the judges was that it was definitely “worth getting out of bed for.”
The paper also won Scoop of the Year for its exclusive ‘Blood Money’ investigation that revealed Thomas Cook had received around ten times the compensation awarded to the parents of two children who died from carbon monoxide poisoning in a Corfu hotel villa booked through the travel agent. The judges said that it was “a brilliant exposure of corporate greed and heartlessness”.
Reporter David Rose was awarded the News Reporter of the Year accolade, in part, for his Guantanamo campaign and interview with released prisoner Shaker Aamer. The paper also saw Ian Birrell awarded the Foreign Reporter of the Year. Birrell was also awarded the Columnist of the Year for work in the Daily Mail, The Independent and The Sun. Cole Moreton was awarded the Interviewer of the Year Award for popular papers.
The Guardian took home five awards with Sarah Boseley winning the Science and Health Journalist of the Year Award for her coverage of the Ebola crisis, Marina O’Loughlin winning Critic of the Year, Tom Jenkins Sports Photographer of the Year. The paper also won the Website of the Year title for the second year running and Supplement of the Year for The Guardian Weekend Magazine.
The Times collected four awards in recognition of its first-class team of journalists. Matthew Syed won Sports Journalist of the Year, Martin Fletcher, Feature Writer of the Year for broadsheet platforms, Morten Morland for Columnist of the Year and Rachel Sylvester for Political Writer of the Year.
Sunday Times writers were awarded the Interviewer of the Year prize for Camilla Long, Columnist of the Year for Dominic Lawson and Photographer of the Year for Manu Brabo.
The Sun collected the Front Page of the Year award for its ‘Busted’ front page showing peer Lord Sewel in what the judges said became “the defining image of a scandal”.
The judges added: “It was a classic, brilliant tabloid front page that screamed ‘buy me’. Lord Coke has never looked seedier.”
The Sun also won the Specialist Journalist of the Year award for consumer reporter Dan Jones.
The Financial Times won the Business and Finance Journalist of the Year Award for reporter Richard Milne’s coverage of the Volkswagen scandal and the paper was also awarded the Digital Innovation Award for its wearable technology project.
The Daily Mail’s Charity Cold-Calling campaign was also awarded the Cudlipp Award for campaigning journalism.
The judges described it as “campaigning journalism at its best, a brilliantly-executed journalistic operation that swiftly saw a clampdown on the bullying tactics and unscrupulous behaviour of some major charities”.
They added that legendary Daily Mirror chief Hugh Cudlipp would have “loved and admired it”.
MailSport shared the Sports Team title with its sister paper and Guy Adams of the Daily Mail won the Feature Writer of the Year award for popular papers.
Nicola Methven of the Daily Mirror was named Showbiz Reporter and The Daily Telegraph’s Tom Rowley was awarded the Young Journalist of the Year prize,
The Irish Ambassador to the UK, Daniel Mulhall, was awarded the Journalists’ Charity Chairman’s Award for his support for the charity and the Georgina Henry Women in Journalism Prize for Innovation went to journalist Amie Ferris-Rotman. Amie’s proposal was to progress the project Sahar Speaks: a programme to train and support Afghan female journalists.
The evening also saw Amol Rajan, editor of The Independent, Lisa Markwell of The Independent on Sunday and Oly Duff of the i take to the stage to pick up the Chairman’s Award for their titles in recognition of the contribution of all three to journalism as the titles come to the end of their lives in print or move on to new ownership.
Highly commended certificates were also awarded to five Sunday Times reporters, four reporters for The Times, three for The Daily Telegraph, two for The Guardian, the London Evening Standard and the Press Association and one apiece for The Independent, The Independent on Sunday, The Sunday Telegraph, the Daily Mail, the Daily and Sunday Mirror, The Observer, The Sun, Vice News and POLITICO Europe.
The awards, held at the London Hilton on Park Lane were supported by Camelot, which has supported the Society of Editors since 2001, EY, Wiggin, Wellcome Trust, Google, Luther Pendragon, Gorkana, Press Association, JTI, Reuters, Battleface, The Hilton Park Lane, PCS, BT, Journalists' Charity and the British Journalism Review.
Photos, video and citations from the event can be found online.
YOUNG JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR
Winner: Tom Rowley – The Daily Telegraph
Highly commended: Josh Boswell – The Sunday Times and Stephen Bush – The New Statesman
BUSINESS AND FINANCE JOURNALIST
Winner: Richard Milne – Financial Times
Highly commended: Russell Lynch – London Evening Standard and The Independent
POLITICAL JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR
Winner: Rachel Sylvester – The Times
Highly commended: Matthew Parris – The Times
FOREIGN REPORTER OF THE YEAR
Winner: Ian Birrell – The Mail on Sunday
Highly commended: Patrick Kingsley – The Guardian
SCIENCE AND HEALTH JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR
Winner: Sarah Boseley – The Guardian
Highly commended: Paul Gallagher – The Independent on Sunday
SHOWBIZ REPORTER OF THE YEAR
Winner: Nicola Methven – Daily Mirror
SPORTS JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR
Winner: Matthew Syed – The Times
Highly commended: Oliver Brown – The Daily and The Sunday Telegraph
SPECIALIST JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR
Winner: Dan Jones – The Sun
Highly commended: Laura Donnelly – The Daily Telegraph
INTERVIEWER OF THE YEAR: POPULAR
Winner: Cole Moreton – The Mail on Sunday
Highly commended: Stephanie Rafanelli – London Evening Standard
INTERVIEWER OF THE YEAR: BROADSHEET
Winner: Camilla Long – The Sunday Times
Highly commended: Krissi Murison – The Sunday Times
FEATURE WRITER OF THE YEAR: POPULAR
Winner: Guy Adams – Daily Mail
Highly commended: Tom Leonard – Daily Mail
FEATURE WRITER OF THE YEAR: BROADSHEET
Winner: Martin Fletcher – The Times
Highly commended: Ben Judah – POLITICO Europe
COLUMNIST OF THE YEAR: POPULAR
Winner: Ian Birrell – Freelance (Daily Mail, The Independent, The Sun)
Highly commended: Ros Wynne-Jones – Daily Mirror
COLUMNIST OF THE YEAR: BROADSHEET
Winner: Dominic Lawson – The Sunday Times
Highly commended: Giles Coren – The Times
CRITIC OF THE YEAR
Winner: Marina O’Loughlin – The Guardian
Highly commended: Jay Rayner – The Observer
PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR
Winner: Manu Brabo – The Sunday Times
Highly commended: Stefan Rousseau – Press Association
SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR
Winner: Tom Jenkins – The Guardian
Highly commended: Mike Egerton – Press Association
CARTOONIST OF THE YEAR
Winner: Morten Morland – The Times
Highly commended: Peter Brookes – The Times
SCOOP OF THE YEAR
Winner: Blood Money, Nick Craven and Nigel Bunyan – The Mail on Sunday
Highly commended: Doping Scandal, Team Insight: Jonathan Calvert, George Arbuthnott and David Collins - The Sunday Times.
NEWS REPORTER OF THE YEAR
Winner: David Rose – The Mail on Sunday
Highly commended: Nick Craven – The Mail on Sunday and Stephen Moyes – The Sun
THE DIGITAL INNOVATION AWARD
Winner: Financial Times
Highly commended: The Daily Telegraph
WEBSITE OF THE YEAR
Winner: The Guardian
Highly commended: VICE News
FRONT PAGE OF THE YEAR
Winner: Busted – The Sun
Highly commended: I Can’t Believe I Escaped This – Sunday Mirror and United We Stand – The Times
SUPPLEMENT OF THE YEAR
Winner: The Guardian Weekend Magazine
Highly commended: FT Weekend Magazine
SPORTS TEAM OF THE YEAR
Winner: MailSport
Highly commended: The Guardian Sport
NEWS TEAM OF THE YEAR
Winner: The Mail on Sunday
Highly commended: The Sunday Times
THE CUDLIPP AWARD
Winner: Charity Cold-Calling campaign – Daily Mail
Highly commended: Athletics Doping Scandal, Team Insight: Jonathan Calvert, George Arbuthnott and David Collins - The Sunday Times
JOURNALISTS’ CHARITY AWARD
Winner: Daniel Mulhall, Ambassador of Ireland to Great Britain
THE GEORGINA HENRY WOMEN IN JOURNALISM PRIZE FOR INNOVATION
Winner: Amie Ferris-Rotman
Highly commended: Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi
CHAIRMAN’S AWARD
Winner: The Independent, The Independent on Sunday and the i
NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR
Winner: The Mail on Sunday
