NZME journalists and broadcasters have starred at the country's premier media awards tonight, bagging a swag of top prizes.
The New Zealand Herald won Newspaper of the Year (circulation 30,000+) at the Canon Media Awards, while Newstalk ZB won Station of The Year at the New Zealand Radio Awards.
And many individuals won big.
Herald journalist Matt Nippert won the hotly-contested Reporter of the Year award, while the Rotorua Daily Post's Stephen Parker took the coveted Photographer of the Year prize.
Stephen Parker, Rotorua Daily Post - Best Portrait Photo Canon Media Awards 2016.
The Reporter of the Year judges Fred Tullet and Jim Tully described Nippert as an "extremely capable journalist delivering outstanding, well-researched and compelling stories across an admirable range of topics".
And as well as taking the top photography award, Parker also won best portrait and best sports photo, with judges Wayne Harman, Rob Taggart and Mark Baker saying "every picture in the set demonstrates a huge talent for having original ideas and producing creative, excellent composed and technically perfect pictures to illustrate routine stories".
Newstalk ZB host Leighton Smith has won the Talkback Presenter of the Year, while Bernadine Oliver-Kerby is joint winner of Best Newsreader award.
Rachel Smalley and Bernadine Oliver-Kerby at the NZ Radio Awards. Photo / Norrie Montgomery
One of the major radio prizes - The Blackie Award - went to Hauraki Breakfast for their "John Key Thank you For your Honesty" segment. The Blackie recognises "a golden moment of radio".
Newspaper of the Year judges Campbell Reid and Brett McCarthy said the New Zealand Herald "makes it difficult for other newspapers. It has expertise from front to back and a compelling digital presence across all platforms. It remains the paper committed not just to Auckland's story but New Zealand's story. In a way this gives it a bigger mission than the other major dailies but it takes the responsibility of being the nation's newspaper seriously and consistently meets the challenge".
The Herald picked up several other top awards winning Best Sport Site for nzherald.co.nz/sport, best front page, best innovation in storytelling (for Caleb Tutty, Matt Nippert and Jared Savage) and best editorial campaign for The Forgotten Millions, which raised $1.3 million for Syrian refugees before the Government matched it dollar for dollar.
Herald journalist Matt Nippert won the Reporter of the Year award. Photo / Dean Purcell
Herald staff dominated the reporter category with a further six awards: Matt Nippert for business; Bernard Orsman and Jared Savage jointly for politics; Jared Savage for crime and justice; Jamie Morton for science and technology; Dana Johannsen for sport and Lincoln Tan for general.
Other Herald winners were Anne Gibson for the business feature writer category; Chris Barton for business opinion writer; Harkanwal Singh won best digital artworks or graphics; Richard Dale won best print artworks or graphics; Nick Reed won best sports video. Canvas writer Kim Knight won best reporter lifestyle and arts and entertainment for her work at the Sunday Star Times and Best Feature Video went to Herald video journalist Mike Scott.
The awards were celebrated by 450 people at a black tie dinner at Te Papa National Museum in Wellington.
The Waikato Times and its weekend edition were named Canon Newspaper of the Year, Mike White from North & South won Feature Writer of the Year and NZ Listener senior feature writer Rebecca Macfie was awarded the annual Wolfson Fellowship to study at Cambridge University, United Kingdom.
