The Press and Journal and Evening Express have been recognised as among Britain’s top regional news providers – picking up a slew of major award nominations.
Shortlists were revealed yesterday for both the Society of Editors’ UK regional press awards and the Scottish Press Awards run by the Scottish Newspaper Society.
The P&J is among the picks to be named overall Newspaper of the Year when the gongs are handed out in September.
And some of the innovative work we are doing to bring readers a huge variety of content both online and in print is recognised by expert judges.
Stonehaven rail crash
Our comprehensive coverage of the tragic train crash near Stonehaven last summer is among the journalism singled out for praise.
The work of the team which scrambled to tell the story – not just what had happened, but tributes to the victims and attempts to work out why a train came to derail with such awful consequences – is up for a prestigious prize.
Impact team reporter Dale Haslam, who led an in-depth look at the crash as well as issues such as the £13million crimes of “King of the Swindlers” Alistair Grieg and the deadly impact of domestic violence is up for two separate awards.
Our front page relaying the awful news is among the handful selected as the most striking in Scotland last year.
Coronavirus trackers
Data journalist Lesley-Anne Kelly, who devised our Covid-19 trackers, is another to appear twice – as is Calum Ross, whose Generation Next series on aspiring politicians wins plaudits.
“Muckle weel done” as well to the team behind Spikkin Scots, a look at our unique words and phrases which is up for a digital innovation award.
Chris Deerin and Alex Bell go head to head for the columnist crown as do reporters covering important regional industries – Allister Thomas on oil and gas and Julia Bryce on food and drink.
Features on everything from the mystery that still surrounds the death of Sandy Ingram to the passion making a dolphin spotting centre a reality win Shona Gossip a nod.
Home delivery network
Unusually too, it is not just the journalism either – the dedicated team who get papers delivered to homes across the north and north-east including an army of paperboys and girls – are up for a special award set up by the Society of Editors to mark exceptional responses to the challenges posed by the pandemic.
There is a strong showing too from our sister DC Thomson titles in Dundee, taking the total number of shortlist entries to some 36.
Aberdeen Journals editor in chief Frank O’Donnell said: “This is testament to the quality of journalism that we provide, in print and online, day in and day out.”