More than 570 people gathered at Cordis Auckland on Friday for the Voyager Media Awards (formerly, the Canon Media Awards), to celebrate excellence in New Zealand journalism. Winners were selected from 335 finalists across 68 categories.
The New Zealand Herald/NZME titles performed with distinction picking up 21 of the category wins including Best News Website or App for nzherald.co.nz. The Weekend Herald was awarded both Best Weekly Newspaper of the Year and Voyager Newspaper of the Year.
Stuff titles weren’t far behind, scoring 16 awards including Website of the Year for stuff.co.nz – a joint win with newcomer newsroom.co.nz. They were also awarded the highly-sought after Newspaper of the Year in both categories with the Waikato Times granted the ‘up to 30,000 circulation’ and The Press awarded the ‘more than 30,000 circulation’ category.
The coveted Wolfson Fellowship was awarded to New Zealand Herald journalist Matt Nippert who also took home Best Business Journalist of the Year. The Wolfson Fellowship includes a grant to study abroad at Cambridge University in the UK.
Now in its 45th year and in the first year of its new partnership with Voyager Internet, the annual awards introduced some new categories reflective of the changing media landscape.
New digital and multimedia categories such as Best Innovation in Digital Storytelling was won by rnz.co.nz for their NZ Wars: The Stories of Ruapekapeka web-documentary, with Best Team News Video going to 1 NEWS NOW’s Edgecumbe’s poor flood defences and Best Team Feature Video to the New Zealand Herald’s Under the Bridge series.
Voyager Internet ceo Seeby Woodhouse said the awards night was a huge success and being part of celebrating and showcasing the great work of New Zealand journalists was inspiring.
“Melanie Reid’s exposure of the cover-up is a fine example of patiently pursuing a story that needed to be told – it took three months to get the pivotal interview.”
“The quality of journalism that was highlighted tonight reflects the talent and drive New Zealand journalists have in abundance and that they deliver to the public day in day out,” he said.
In addition to winning Website of the Year alongside stuff.co.nz, newsroom.co.nz proved to be an outlet to watch. Newsroom journalist Sasha Borissenko received the nib junior Health Journalism Scholarship, while Melanie Reid impressed judges with her reporting of the former MP Todd Barclay scandal titled Politicians, police, and the payout which saw her take home the Best Single News Story.
“Melanie Reid’s exposure of the cover-up to protect MP Todd Barclay is a fine example of patiently pursuing a story that needed to be told,” the judges said. “It took three months to get the pivotal interview.
“The result was compelling, exclusive coverage that dominated the news at a crucial time in the election cycle.”
In addition to her piece on former MP Todd Barclay, Reid’s entries were declared a ‘masterclass in journalism’ by the judges due to the breadth of her reporting in areas of politics, business and the courts.
Collectively, her portfolio of work saw her win the top prize of Reporter of the Year – the position previously held by Wolfson Fellowship winner Matt Nippert.
Other independents such as The Spinoff also made their mark at this year’s awards, taking away five wins including the Opinion Writing Business/Personal Finance category, won by editor Duncan Grieve.
About Voyager Internet
Founded in 2011, Voyager Internet is a NZ-owned telecommunications company. Voyager delivers supersonic broadband to New Zealand homes across the country and supports Kiwi businesses to grow and flourish with their voice, hosting and domain name services. It is one of the fastest growing technology companies and was named as the fastest growing company in the Deloitte Fast 50 in 2014.
- voyager.nz
- voyagermediaawards.nz
- Read the Woodhouse speech, courtesy of NBR, here
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