WalesOnline celebrates success at news media industry awards
WalesOnline is celebrating after winning a top media industry award. The Western Mail’s sister website was named the News Website of the Year at the Wales Media Awards 2017, which took place in Cardiff on Friday evening.
The award was one of 21 handed out at a gala ceremony at the Mercure Holland House Hotel, hosted by Sky News presenter Dermot Murnaghan.
Paul Rowland, who is WalesOnline’s editor and editor-in-chief of our parent company Media Wales, said: “We’re delighted and proud to win this award.
“We’re passionate about making WalesOnline a success but the site is only as good as the stories on it, so this award is for every single person who works hard every day to give our readers the most important, engaging and agenda-setting content we can produce.”
The judges said WalesOnline “had built more than a commanding position... it was at present unassailable”.
We also had great success in two other areas.
Football writer Chris Wathan, who produced extensive coverage of Wales’ success at last summer’s Euro 2016 tournament, was named Sports Journalist of the Year.
Judges said Chris “knows how to grab the attention of the reader with his punchy openings and beautiful writing”.
Chris said he was “properly proud” to receive the award, adding: “If 2016 wasn’t special enough, [a] lovely little memory of how lucky I was to cover it.”
And Gemma Parry was the winner of Print News Reporter of the Year for her work with the South Wales Evening Post, which is now part of the Media Wales family.
Gemma was praised by the judges for being “a reporter that went that extra mile”, producing the startling revelation about the probable use of Chinese steel in the Port Talbot turbines. Colleague Liz Perkins was also shortlisted for the award.
Gemma said she was “delighted” and “very shocked” to win the accolade.
The Western Mail was finalist in the Daily and Sunday Newspaper of the Year category, which was won by its sister title the Daily Post.
Media Wales’ political editor David Williamson was finalist in the Political Journalist of the Year category, while local government correspondent Ruth Mosalski was finalist in the Feature Writer of the Year category.
And colleagues Katie Sands and Tyler Mears were also finalists – Katie in the Online News Reporter of the Year category and Tyler as Young Journalist of the Year,
Veteran broadcaster and former BBC news frontman Vincent Kane was presented with an Outstanding Contribution Award.
Lonai-Ronahi-Hasan won Student Journalist of the Year for an article she wrote in the Western Mail about the day-to-day horrors of life in Kobani, Syria. Judges praised it as “a super piece of journalism” that “would fit well into any major national or international publication”.
The Wales Media Awards are organised by Spencer David on behalf of the Journalists’ Charity in Wales with the support of a range of sponsors and partners.