Shayne Currie Managing Editor of NZME titles NZ Herald, Newstalk ZB and Radio Sport stands with some of the Heralds reporting team at the Voyager Media Awards in Auckland tonight.
Shayne Currie Managing Editor of NZME titles NZ Herald, Newstalk ZB and Radio Sport stands with some of the Heralds reporting team at the Voyager Media Awards in Auckland tonight.
The Weekend Herald was crowned overall Newspaper of the Year and nzherald.co.nz named best news website, as NZME and Herald journalists swept many of the major prizes at this year's Voyager Media Awards.
It is the second successive year that the Weekend Herald has won the Newspaper of the Year title - and now the ninth time in 11 years that one of the three major Herald mastheads (NZ Herald, Weekend Herald and Herald on Sunday) has won the top prize.
Investigative reporter Matt Nippert was named business journalist of the year and won the night's supreme individual prize - a 10-week scholarship to Wolfson College at Cambridge University - in recognition of his win and for winning the Reporter of the Year title for two successive years (2016, 2017).
As well as Newspaper of the Year, the Weekend Herald was named best weekly newspaper.
"The Weekend Herald stands out on several levels," said the panel of overseas judges. "Its excellence in editing and design allows its top-notch journalism to shine through. It is informative and entertaining, hard-hitting and compelling. There is a must-read quality about the Weekend Herald which makes it the standout in this year's awards. Well done to all the staff on the masthead. These are such important and challenging times for journalism. You are more than filling your brief."
nzherald.co.nz was named best news website and its Break the Silence youth suicide campaign was awarded best editorial campaign.
"A brilliantly-executed campaign revealing horrifying statistics and stories behind our abnormally high teen suicide rate, was the standout entry in this category," said the judges.
"Quiet hope that change might come emerged. The New Zealand Herald is to be applauded for its bravery in challenging what has been up till now hushed-up failure or acceptance of the status quo."
Herald journalists, and their work, swept many of the main categories.
As well as Nippert winning business journalist of the year, Audrey Young was named political journalist of the year, Dana Johannsen the sports journalist of the year, Carmen Hall the regional journalist of the year, Steve Braunias the opinion writer of the year, and Mike Scott and Alexander Robertson (Local Focus) the videographers of the year.
Clarke Gayford sits with his partner Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at the Voyager Media Awards on Friday night in Auckland. Photo / Greg Bowker
Herald editor Murray Kirkness was named editorial executive of the year.
Best investigation was won by Olivia Carville for What Becomes of the Broken Hearted, part of the Break the Silence campaign. Judges called her work "comprehensive and outstanding".
Best team video-feature was won by the Herald's Under the Bridge documentary, focusing on the students and principal of Papakura High School.
The Herald's sister paper Hawke's Bay Today won best front-page.
The NZ Herald was a finalist for best daily newspaper (over 30,000 circulation), a category won by The Press and the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post were finalists for best daily newspaper (under 30,000 circulation), a category won by Waikato Times.
Weekend Herald editor Miriyana Alexander - who is moving to a new role as premium content editor across seven days for NZME - was thrilled the Weekend Herald had won back-to-back Newspaper of the Year titles. It was, she said, "deserved recognition of the Herald's stellar newsroom, and the premium journalism our talented team consistently delivers".
Other Herald and NZME category winners were Greg Bruce (two feature-writing categories), Jared Savage (reporting), Kirsty Johnston (feature-writing) and John Borren (photography). Herald senior writer Simon Wilson won a feature-writing category for work while he was at The Spinoff.
Melanie Reid, from the online website Newsroom, won the Reporter of the Year award. She also took the award for Best News Story, for her work on the Todd Barclay affair.
