Bay of Plenty Times finalist in Voyager Media Awards

Bay of Plenty Times.

The Bay of Plenty Times has been named a finalist for Regional Newspaper of the Year in the 2023 Voyager Media Awards.

It is the second time in three years the newsroom has been nominated for the award. It was also a finalist in 2021 alongside sister paper Rotorua Daily Post which won that year.

Ethan Griffiths, an Open Justice Reporter based in the Bay of Plenty Times newsroom last year, is nominated for Junior Reporter of the Year and Best individual investigation for The prosecution of Jayden Meyer.

NZME Bay of Plenty regional editor Scott Inglis said he was blown away by the result.

“It’s a testament to the great work put in by the staff across the region both as individuals and as a team.”

Stories covered in the Bay of Plenty Times’ submitted editions included coverage of the funding debate surrounding “miracle drug” Trikafta, the story on Bethlehem College asking parents to acknowledge a belief marriage is between a man and a woman – a move labelled “discriminatory”, and a series on Tauranga Moana iwi, Ngāi Te Rangi called Iwi Insights.

Inglis said Griffiths’ nomination showed the breadth of work he had done in the justice sector and his nomination for coverage of the Jayden Meyer case was well-deserved.

Meyer was sentenced to nine months’ home detention for the rapes of four young victims.”Ethan led the coverage of the case of Jayden Meyer, breaking the story and talking exclusively to the victims. He covered the large nationwide protests and the story gained widespread media attention.”

The nominations are among more than 50 picked up by the Rotorua Daily Post and Bay of Plenty Times’ publisher NZME. NZME’s nominations are across various categories including editorial, photography, digital and podcasting, as well as being finalists in a number of team, regional and national categories.

The NZ Herald and Weekend Herald are up for best daily newspaper and best weekly newspaper respectively, nzherald.co.nz is a finalist for Website of the Year and NZ Herald for App of the Year. The Herald has won both awards for each of the past three years.

“The breadth of nominations speaks volumes about the talent across NZME and the super work of our newsrooms,” acting managing editor Murray Kirkness said.

The winners will be announced at an awards evening in Auckland on May 27.