Money Mail scoops five financial ‘Oscars’
MONEY Mail scooped five gongs at a prestigious personal finance journalism awards ceremony this week.
The annual Headlinemoney Awards, which are considered the ‘Oscars’ of consumer and financial journalism, were held in London on Wednesday night.
Helena Kelly, who joined the team as Money Mail Reporter in April 2021, was named ‘Rising Star’ and also took the Protection Journalist of the Year award.
The judges said they were impressed by her ‘excellent reporting style’ and commended the way that she tackles her subjects ‘in a hard hitting, graphic way, sparing no punches’.
Helena was also highly commended in the Insurance Journalist of the Year category.
Money Mail’s consumer champion, Tony Hazell, who recently stepped down after
32 years of fighting for the rights of readers, won Headline money’s Outstanding Achievement award.
Highly respected in the industry, Tony was appointed Money Mail editor in 1999 before taking the reins as consumer champion in 2011.
The judges said that they were ‘delighted’ to recognise his career, which has encompassed campaigns, scandals, stock market crashes, bank failures and financial crises.
‘He has won back millions of pounds for readers who have been treated appallingly by financial firms,’ they added in the citation.
Former Money Mail Deputy Editor Ben Wilkinson was presented with two awards for his work at this newspaper.
He won ‘Personal Finance Story of the Year’ for his investigation into debt vulture firms which prey on the vulnerable and Headline money’s Journalist of the Year, which is given to a winner who has ‘done something extra to stand out’ in their work.
Of Ben, the judges said: ‘As well as producing award-winning work of his own this year, in his previous role as Deputy Editor at Money Mail, Ben played an important part in a strong team that successfully scored several other accolades at this year’s awards.’
Money Mail’s sister website Thisismoney also won ‘Campaign of the Year’ for work exposing the women’s state pension underpayment scandal, which ‘took aim at a massive historical injustice and achieved tangible results’.
The Daily Mail was highly commended in this category for its ‘End the Cladding Scandal’ campaign, which the judges said ‘shows the power of personal finance journalism and its ability to change people’s lives’.