Petrina's done us proud with big win

The Northland Age has won numerous awards over recent years, but last week photographer Petrina Hodgson set a whole new benchmark.

She collected a Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers' Association (PANPA) award, the newspaper's first, at the 2012 awards dinner in Sydney, beating 11 other finalists, most of them from Australia, in the Portrait Photograph (suburban/regional/rural) of the Year category.

APN NZ managing editor Laura Franklin said winning a PANPA award was a fantastic achievement.

"It is a great credit to Petrina to have been named the winner in a category that pitted her against photographers from daily newspapers throughout New Zealand, Australia, the Pacific and South-East Asia," she said.

"The PANPA awards attracted 1070 entries this year and 78 judges were involved in selecting the winners, so it's wonderful to see the Northland Age up there with the best international newspapers."

The winning photograph, entitled 'Birthday Girl,' captured Switzer Residential Care resident Kathleen Bambury as she blew out the candles her 100th birthday earlier this year. Mrs Bambury passed away a short time later.

Northern Publishing Company general manager Greg Alexander agreed that the win was "another outstanding achievement" for the Northland Age.

"This achievement continues an amazing run for the Northland Age team, which has won many industry awards in recent times," he said.

"These awards reflect the high level of commitment and determination by the Northland Age team to continue providing a relevant and compelling newspaper which is regarded as amongst the best in Australasia."

The Age, which entered the awards for the first time in 2010 (when it as a finalist, and highly commended, in the Newspaper of the Year, non-daily, circulation up to 10,000 category), made two finals this year, the other being achieved by the advertising team of Shirley Williams, Sharon Adams and Nicola King, whose entry in the display advertising category was one of five finalists.