Belfast Telegraph cleans up with eight wins at the Regional Press Awards

THE Belfast Telegraph emerged as the big winner at this year’s Regional Press Awards, scooping eight of the 21 prizes on offer.

The industry’s prestigious awards recognise outstanding reporting and innovation in both print and online across the UK.

Belfast Telegraph and Sunday Life journalists were shortlisted for 17 awards at this year’s ceremony.

The Belfast Telegraph was named Large News Brand of the Year and also won the Website of the Year for the second year running as well as Best Live Coverage awards in addition to five individual prizes.

Three of those went to the publication’s Northern Ireland editor, Sam Mcbride, who was named daily Reporter of the Year, Feature Writer of the Year and Opinion Writer of the Year.

Raymond Esteban was crowned Designer of the Year for the second year running and chief sports writer, Steven Beacom, received the accolade of Sports Journalist of the Year.

Judges said: “The Belfast Telegraph is a big brand, doing what it should be doing — and doing it brilliantly with impressive audience growth figures.

“The Telegraph doesn’t just excel at hard news — it puts business, sport, entertainment and human interest stories at the heart of its output.”

Judges also praised the publication’s Beltel podcast, which celebrated its first birthday in April and has now hit 30,000 downloads a week, calling it “a strong indication that the title is adapting to the changing demands of the readership”.

The Front Page of the Year prize went to Belfast’s Sunday World — another Mediahuis-owned title — for its front page headlined Blind Courage, telling the shocking story of a Craigavon mum who stood up to a gangland boss after he blinded her in a brutal attack.

Belfast Telegraph Editor-in-chief Eoin Brannigan said: “Winning eight awards at the Regional Press Awards is a landmark achievement for the Belfast Telegraph. Congratulations to all our winners, those highly commended and all those nominated.

“Sam Mcbride has worked so hard for his three richly deserved prizes but these awards are for the entire newsroom, whose work has seen people flock to our journalism across print and digital. Congratulations also to our sister title the Sunday World who picked up the Front Page of the Year award.”

The Belfast Telegraph scooped more awards collectively than any other publication at the 2024 event in London.

Last month, the Belfast Telegraph was named Media Outlet of the Year at the CIPR NI Media Awards.