The Western Mail and its sister website WalesOnline have scooped a haul of industry awards. Rachel Mainwaring reports
THE Western Mail and its sister website WalesOnline are celebrating after being honoured with prestigious industry awards.
The Western Mail has been named Daily/Sunday Newspaper of the Year at the 2018 Wales Media Awards, which took place on Friday evening, while WalesOnline has been awarded News Website of the Year.
The judges called this newspaper “essential reading” and praised its “striking front pages, and particularly strong coverage of the Aberfan anniversary”.
They added: “The 2017 election pages were impressive, and the team deserves great praise not only for the breadth of coverage, the political analysis, and the originality, but also for putting it all together against tough deadlines.”
The judges said the website “offers impressive online storytelling”.
Western Mail and WalesOnline journalist Katie Sands won a fantastic four awards – Digital Journalist of the Year, Young Journalist of the Year, Journalist of the Year and was also part of the team – alongside executive editor Steffan Rhys and designer Adam Walker – which won Story of the Year for their work on the 50th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster.
The judges said of Katie: “She showed extraordinary maturity in her approach – her stories are beautifully written and produced and are incredibly touching.”
Our writer Will Hayward won Online News Reporter of the Year and was dubbed “a journalist destined to go far” by the judges, while Ben James was named Sports Journalist of the Year at just 21. The judges called his work, which included an article about former Wales rugby star Gavin Henson, “ground-breaking”, “a real breath of fresh air” and “very well researched”. Our head of sport Paul Abbandonato and football writer Chris Wathan had also been shortlisted for the award.
The Western Mail’s Weekend Magazine, which is already the UK Regional Press Awards Supplement of the Year, was a finalist in the Magazine of the Year category, as was our sister publication Swansea Bay Business Life. Sister titles the South Wales Echo and Daily Post were finalists in the Daily/Sunday Newspaper of the Year category.
Will was also a Digital Journalist of the Year finalist.
Katie was an Online News Reporter of the Year finalist. Katie and our local government correspondent Ruth Mosalski were finalists in the Feature Writer of the Year category, while our political editor David Williamson and chief reporter Martin Shipton were finalists in the Political Journalist of the Year contest.
Daily Post journalist Mari Jones won Print News Reporter of the Year over our journalists and finalists James McCarthy and Gemma Parry.
Former South Wales Echo and Daily Mail journalist Peter Jackson, who makes regular appearances as a pundit on BBC Wales’ Scrum V programme, was honoured at the event, hosted by news presenter Lucy Owen, with an Outstanding Contribution Award. He was visibly moved by the honour.
On receiving the Daily/Sunday Newspaper of the Year award, Catrin Pascoe, the Western Mail’s editor, said: “I am absolutely thrilled to have accepted this award on behalf of our phenomenal team who work so hard each day with such commitment, creativity and care to deliver the very best journalism possible for our readers.”
Paul Rowland, WalesOnline editor and Media Wales’ editor-in-chief, said: “I am thrilled to see the work of our outstanding team recognised in this way.
“Katie, Will and Ben are three absolutely outstanding young journalists whose awards are richly deserved, but the team awards for the Western Mail and WalesOnline are a credit to the entire team, who all bring awesome creativity and graft to work with them every day.
“Finally we’re humbled to have been recognised for our work on the 50th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster. We all feel a huge moral responsibility to cover the story sensitively and skilfully, so we’re honoured to have coverage recognised by the judges.”