Recorder lifts Local Newspaper of the Year title

Recorder lifts Local Newspaper of the Year title

2 July 2014

THE Down Recorder has been named as Northern Ireland’s Local Newspaper of the Year.

At the 21st Coca Cola CIPR Northern Ireland Media Awards in Belfast on Friday night the Recorder beat off competition from other local newspapers to win the prestigious honour.

A judging panel, headed by Bob Satchwell, the executive editor of the Society of Editors in the UK, said the Recorder stood out amongst its competitors for its design, campaigning and local weekly fayre.

It is the third time in four years the Recorder has picked up an award at the event. In 2011 Joanne Fleming was named Weekly Journalist of the Year and the following year Ciara Colhoun took the same title.

There was further success at this year’s awards ceremony, which took place at the Mac theatre in Belfast, when Recorder 

reporter David Telford was shortlisted in the Weekly Journalist of the Year title, and production manager, Hugh Carville, was shortlisted in the Production Journalist of the Year category.

In the citation to the Newspaper of the Year award the judges said the Recorder has more “balls” than most to bring big issues to light.

“It is the best looking, design-led paper and has developed prominent local stories,” said the judges.

“They believe in something, take it by the reins and run with it. It’s a feisty paper and there’s not many of those about.

“The paper has the right mixture of campaigning and local weekly fayre to make it stand out amongst the competitors,” said the citation.

Recorder editor Paul Symington said the award is awonderful tribute to the outstanding staff who work across a range of departments to produce outstanding newspapers week in, week out.

“The journalists and the photographers are the public face of the newspaper, and we are blessed with some of the finest of both in Northern Ireland, but there are many more behind the scenes who are quite simply invaluable on a weekly basis,” he said.

“The long hours and the pressure of deadlines make this a stressful industry but there is not a week that the Recorder staff do not pull out all the stops to produce the best possible paper.

“As you study the work that is produced it is quite clear there is an enormous pride in whatever job is being undertaken, across every department, and it in the continual quality of the paper.

“I would like to place on record my gratitude and admiration for all the staff for their commitment, dedication and energy which has now been recognised with this prestigious award.”

The three entries submitted by the Recorder were some of our most memorable; for the quality of the journalism, the photography and the design.

• The havoc wreaked by Downpatrick travel agent Kathy Ward was one of our award-winning entries. The Recorder spoke to many of her near 100 victims who lost of tens of thousands of pounds when the fraudulent Ward ripped them off. And we highlighted the enormous dissatisfaction when Ward escaped prison and walked free with a suspended sentence.

• One of the big stories of the year has been the threat of closure hanging over the Exploris aquarium in Portaferry. The story was broken exclusively by David Telford who has produced a series of outstanding features from the area on the likely impact that closure would have on this economically deprived area.

• The decision to introduce part time opening at the Downe Hospital A&E unit produced an outpouring of anger across the community. The Recorder captured the feelings of outrage and helplessness in a major feature in February which ignored politicians and instead spoke to local people — pensioners, students, farmers, people whose lives have been saved by the Downe. In depth stories were wonderfully backed up by outstanding photographs to create an edition which won the praise of the judges in the Media Awards.