The Daily Record has been crowned Scotland’s Newspaper of the Year for 2016 at the 37th annual Scottish Press Awards, retaining the title it won last year.
Hosted in typically irreverent style by comedian, columnist and football pundit Tam Cowan, over 300 journalists, sponsors and guests attended the awards ceremony and dinner at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Glasgow on April 21.
The Daily Record scooped four other trophies, for Sports News Writer of the Year, Political Journalist of the Year and Young Journalist of the Year. It won Campaign of the Year for its coverage of the refugee crisis and the war on terror campaign #WeHaveRoom.
Winners of major individual awards were headed by Mark Macaskill from The Sunday Times, who was named both Journalist of the Year and Reporter of the Year for his work on the property deals of SNP MP Michelle Thomson.
Commenting on the Daily Record’s Newspaper of the Year award, Chairman of the judges, Austin Lafferty said: “A year after the referendum, the Daily Record is engaged by the power brokers, has a mass readership and looks after emerging talent in the industry. The Daily Record has survived the decline of the Labour party without falling, and is transcending the Scottish political landscape as well as building an aggressive new media strategy, keen to embrace our digital future.”
Weekly Newspaper of the Year went to the Fife Free Press, also for the second year running.
The awards are organised by the Scottish Newspaper Society (SNS). SNS director John McLellan said: “As always, the awards demonstrate the excellence of the journalism on display every day in Scotland, confirming the role of Scottish newspapers as key agenda-setters, opinion-formers and news-breakers with the powerful combination of print, online and mobile delivery. All our finalists tonight are worthy of heart-felt congratulations.”
The Lifetime Achievement award went to former Daily Record and Scottish Sun editor Bruce Waddell, who paid tribute to his father Ken, a former editor of the Falkirk Herald who was at the event with his wife and family to see his son receive the commemorative salver.
And a posthumous award for outstanding achievement was received by Sean Bell on behalf of his father, the award-winning Herald, Scotsman and Daily Record columnist Ian Bell who died suddenly last year aged 59.
Pictures of all the winners can be found here and the details of winners and short-listed entries can be found here.
Sponsoring this year’s event were: Big Partnership, Clydesdale Bank, Diageo, Event Consultants Scotland, Radisson Blu, Scotch Whisky Association, Visionevents, and VisitScotland.
The event also raised £2,698.95 for the Children’s Hospice Association Scotland (CHAS). Please click here for more information about the charity.