Recorder wins double at newspaper awards

Recorder wins double at newspaper awards

1 July 2015

THE Down Recorder has been named Northern Ireland’s top weekly newspaper — for the second year running. The award was made at the Northern Ireland Media Awards on Friday evening when judges praised the Recorder’s content, design and clear links to the community.

And in a remarkable awards double, Recorder journalist Joanne Fleming was named Weekly Newspaper Reporter of the Year, the second time she has picked up the prestigious award.

In a fantastic night for the Recorder we achieved three other successes.

Joanne was also named runner-up in the Northern Ireland Features Journalist of the Year.

Our production manager, Hugh Carville, was runner-up in the Northern Ireland Production Journalist of the Year award.

We also took the runner-up spot in the Front Page of the Year award, coming second only to the Belfast Telegraph.

In announcing the premier award, Local Newspaper of the Year, the judges said: “The province is blessed with a clutch of top notch local weeklies that know how to serve their communities.

“The Down Recorder showed it really had the pulse of the community. A brave weekly that handled big stories well with style and sensitivity. Its design and layout was also very strong.”

On naming Joanne Local Journalist of the Year, the judges had this to say: “Joanne’s entries demonstrated her skill at nurturing her contacts to extract content on difficult topics.

“She didn’t shy away from the local topics and demonstrated her skill at bringing new life to anniversary based stories. A skilful writer, engaging the reader with every word.”

The entries which won the top newspaper award were our coverage of the shockingly brave account of a woman’s abuse at the hands of her policeman father; our special edition after 20,000 people took part in a health rally in Downpatrick earlier this year; and the previously untold story of a survivor of the Loughinisland massacre.

Recorder editor Paul Symington said retaining the Local Newspaper of the Year title was a fitting tribute to the talent, dedication, hard work of all the staff at the paper.

“It is very difficult to win this award two years running, so we are very proud to have managed this feat in the Northern Ireland Media Awards,” he said.

“The Recorder is one of the last remaining independent newspapers in Northern Ireland and in this category we were up against some of the big media groups.”

He also paid tribute to Joanne after she picked up her second Journalist of the Year title and narrowly missed out on a double.

“Joanne has proved herself to be one of the top journalists in Northern Ireland with this year’s award coming on the back of her previous victory in 2011.

“And to come second in the Features section, which is fought over by all journalists, not just weekly reporters, shows she is right up there with the best in the business,” he said.

Paul also paid tribute to Hugh Carville who also had a great night.

“Hugh was runner-up in the highly competitive Production Journalist category which is fought over by all newspaper and broadcasting production journalists in the Province. To come second was a remarkable achievement.

“We also came second in the Front Page of the Year category, which is another great acknowledgement of Hugh’s talents in design.

“But winning these titles is not down to just a few people,” he continued. “It takes every member of the team to make a successful paper and the Recorder is extremely fortunate to have committed and dedicated people working for us, people who regularly go the extra mile just to make the end result as perfect as possible. 

“It is to those people that the Local Newspaper of the Year title must be dedicated,” he said.