Scottish Newspaper of the Year: Ultimate accolade for your MoS at Press Awards
At this time when authoritative and fearless reporting is even more vital than ever, we are the nation’s leader
YOUR Scottish Mail on Sunday has been named Newspaper of the Year at the prestigious Scottish Press Awards, which celebrate the very best of journalism from across the country.
In a triumphant year for the paper, we also scooped the coveted Journalism Team of the Year for articles exposing the health crisis at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
The awards showcase all news industry talent from across Scotland who have demonstrated initiative, innovation and dedication.
Thirty-seven independent judges – including former news presenter Jackie Bird, ex-newspaper editors and senior PR professionals – decided the winners.
Chairman of judges Denise West said: ‘The Mail on Sunday’s investigation into fatal flaws at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital was exemplary public service journalism, and the repercussions are being felt right now in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.’
Regarding our Journalism Team of the Year – Georgia Edkins, Ashlie McAnally, Dawn Thompson, Patricia Kane and Gareth Rose – the judges said: ‘A team that never missed an angle, relentlessly pursued the story and hit its targets.
‘The Mail on Sunday’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital scandal was a memorable team effort on a public interest story.’
Georgia Edkins was also named Young Journalist of the Year. Judges said: ‘Georgia Edkins is clearly trusted by her editors to help deliver big stories and she does so on a regular basis.’
Columnist Gary Keown was runner-up in the Sports Columnist of the Year category and named Sports Feature Writer of the Year for his work with our sister paper, The Scottish Daily Mail.
Other stand-out stories in the past year included the alleged sex assault on Labour MP Paul Sweeney by Tory MP Ross Thomson in a Commons bar, which led to Mr Thomson resigning as an MP, and the BBC giving airtime to a convicted hate criminal – the broadcaster then pulled the show.
The Scottish Mail on Sunday and Scottish Daily Mail were triumphant in a remarkable six categories and runner-up in four.
The 41st Scottish Press Awards were sponsored by Royal Bank of Scotland, The Law Society of Scotland, VisitScotland, People’s Postcode Lottery, SGN, Openreach, Diageo, Amazon, People’s Energy and the BIG Partnership.
Scottish Newspaper Society director John McLellan said: ‘The awards show how important news publishing is to Scotland; recognising and celebrating the good, exposing the bad, recording achievement, reflecting life in our communities, linking people and businesses.’
Scottish Editor Andrew Harries said: ‘I’m delighted our talented journalists have won so many awards and I’d like to pay tribute to our readers who, even in the midst of the coronavirus crisis, are continuing to buy tens of thousands of copies of their favourite papers every day – they share these successes.’
‘A team that never missed an angle’