Panpa, the Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers’ Association, has given the Newspaper of the Year trophy to the New Zealand Herald at this year’s awards ceremony in Sydney.
The sole Kiwi title shortlisted for award, the Herald beat out the top metropolitan newspapers in Australia. Panpa judges said, “Across all sections, the New Zealand Herald excels, with bright, engaging treatment.
“It fearlessly stands up when needed on major issues, but still knows how to have fun. It is a compulsive read – both in print and online. The paper says its mission is to advocate, inform and entertain. It succeeds – in spades. This year’s entries were of an exceptional standard. In many ways the variety of emphasis and style and approach to stories to cover shows the diversity of media choice across the region. Each title has articulated aggressive and comprehensive digital and business strategies as well as taking great pride in their print editions. It remains clear that across the board, print newspapers and their journalism continue to set the social and political agenda. The New Zealand Herald is absolutely a benchmark for this. Its balance of content is of a high quality publication and its importance to New Zealand society is clear. It has an exciting strategy and mission that will take the newspaper into a bright future.”
On top of the Newspaper of the Year award, Herald investigations editor Jared Savage won Panpa’s Hegarty Award, receiving a $10,000 scholarship, sponsored by MediaSuper, as the year’s outstanding young news publishing executive. Savage’s portfolio included an investigation that led to National MP Maurice Williamson’s resignation as a minister. He intends to use the award to travel to the United States next year to attend an investigative journalism conference and visit influential newsrooms such as the Washington Post and New York Times.
Other Kiwis also fared well. Stephen Parker, from Rotorua’s Daily, won the award for the top sports photograph from a regional newspaper. Panpa named Justine Black, creative services art director of the Herald’s parent company, NZME, as designer/creative services professional of the year.
Panpa received more than 700 entries for this year’s awards, which covered print and digital newspaper publishing, photography, publishing innovation and print and production.
Major daily and weekend mastheads from Australia and New Zealand took part, with numerous entries from the wider Asia-Pacific region.
