The 2009 News Awards Finalists

 

(Names in alphabetical order)

 

The Sir Keith Murdoch Award

John Ferguson, Herald Sun
John’s extensive coverage of the Black Saturday bushfires produced countless firsts, including online and audio reports that left rivals floundering. His exclusives sparked an urgent review of rent contracts for fire victims and persuaded the government to speed up the clean-up process.

Gary Hughes, The Australian
Gary’s moving account of losing his home and almost his life became the world’s signature piece for the Victorian bushfires. His coverage since then has had high impact: it shaped public opinion and the royal commission and Centrelink reversed its policy on victims.

Cameron Stewart, The Australian
The only journalist to be a winner or finalist at every News Awards, Cameron’s portfolio demonstrates an exceptional depth and versatility of exclusive stories and investigations, including an exposé of the military crackdown in Tibet despite heavy official efforts to hide the truth.

 

Newspaper of the Year

The Advertiser
In just 12 months, The Advertiser has undergone its biggest transformation in recent memory. In addition to a new masthead, three new lift-outs were launched, including for the first time a trimmed-and-stapled flagship Saturday magazine, SA Weekend. The paper’s website also had a 49 per cent increase in unique browsers.

The Australian
While the circulation of most quality newspapers overseas has plummeted, The Australian has made significant gains in both circulation and readership. In addition it has launched The Deal, a magazine to reinforce its supremacy in business news, as well as transforming its business website, immediately doubling its audience.

Herald Sun
Reaching 60 per cent of Victorians in print and online, the Herald Sun has developed a unique relationship with readers, typified by its response to the Black Saturday bushfires. Besides its brilliant online coverage, the paper produced a free 16-page guide for survivors and launched a Yellow Ribbon campaign to support victims.

The Sunday Mail, Brisbane
The Sunday Mail combined news-breaking and strong community campaigns, including one about childhood obesity, splashing on a story of an 85kg girl who had a heart attack at the age of 10. The paper also fought, and won, campaigns to improve backyard pool fence safety, resulting in the greatest overhaul of laws in 20 years.

A regional newspaper
The winner of the Regional category below will be a finalist for Newspaper of the Year.

 

Regional Newspaper of the Year

The Gold Coast Bulletin
As the GFC hit, the Bulletin hit back, initiating and leading a 2020-style summit which had a dramatic positive impact on the region’s government and economy. The paper was also the first in the world to get a Michael Jackson tribute edition on the streets after the singer died.

Townsville Bulletin
Despite producing more pages with fewer staff than any other News Limited regional, the Bulletin increased circulation and doubled its website traffic with a powerful mix of news breaking, successful campaigns and connection to its readers through fresher design and new sections.

The Weekly Times
News Limited’s leading rural newspaper, the Weekly Times has ensured it is vital reading in tough times, breaking compelling news stories and launching a website and lively sections that cover all aspects of rural life. Readers have noticed: readership is up 12 per cent as its rivals tumble.

 

Community Newspaper of the Year

Central Coast Express Advocate
The Express Advocate, on the NSW Central Coast, has built a readership of more than 200,000 from a regional population of 300,000. One of its campaigns forced the government to abandon plans for a sand mine next to a school. It has a strong news edge and attracts 6000 unique browsers a week to its website.

The Manly Daily, Sydney
A strong advocate for its readers, the paper has campaigned well on issues such as public transport and alcohol-fuelled violence on The Corso. It is also commercially pro-active and successful online, with 50,000 hits alone for a story on boat fires on Pittwater.

Southern Times Messenger
Exceptionally active in its community, the paper has used a number of significant initiatives to tap into the optimism and sense of renewal in Adelaide’s south. Judges were impressed at how well the paper knows its audience despite the breadth of the area it covers.

 

Magazine of the Year

delicious.
With its sheer energy and entrepreneurial spirit, delicious. has transformed itself into a powerhouse in the crowded food magazine market, with initiatives including books, diaries, reader events, master classes and its successful Café Awards all helping to take the magazine to a new level.

Sunday Magazine
Focusing on high quality journalism and great writing, the magazine has increased credibility to a point where top celebrities grant exclusives to Sunday ahead of the newsstand glossies. Judges were impressed by its confidence, playfulness and sound integration with its mastheads.

QWeekend
The magazine’s pursuit of agenda-setting stories, combined with powerful covers, creative photography and great writing is paying off, with readership up another nine per cent this year, a feat it also achieved last year to prove that bucking trends is a habit.

 

Website of the Year

BeijingNow
News Limited’s website for the Beijing Olympics broke new ground with a host of editorial and technical innovations, setting the standard for integrating our networks nationally. It finished in profit and even beat Yahoo! 7, the official online Olympic broadcaster, in the battle for traffic.

SuperFooty
The Herald Sun’s SuperFooty site’s intense coverage of AFL breaks major stories and scores results: traffic has increased by 50 per cent year-on-year to 1.05 million unique browsers for July while its Fairfax competitor fell 27 per cent to 378,199.

Taste
After launching its lift-out in The Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun and Courier-Mail in March, Taste’s growth exploded to 1.5 million unique browsers a month and 16 million page impressions. A host of new tools have led to exceptional audience engagement and a powerful offering to advertisers.

 

Artist of the Year

Ray Hirst, The Advertiser
While a personal finance section is usually dry material for illustration, Ray transforms it with delightful, handcrafted sculptures which become three-dimensional works of art, not only telling the story but also delivering a subtle message in a highly innovative way.

Paul Leigh, The Daily Telegraph
Paul’s info-graphics are a visual tour-de-force, often dissecting a vivid panorama into finely detailed part which brilliantly explain information to readers. His imaginative look at how Sydney might look if the population left is lively, engaging and highly skilled.

Matt Pike, AdelaideNow
Matt’s versatility and creativity in the online medium is both innovative and entertaining, with his range including imaginative homepage splashes and an amusing signature “pissant” icon, as well as a dynamic visual background to illustrate the Gaza violence.

 

Business Journalist of the Year

Adele Ferguson and Gary Hughes, The Australian
Their forensic reporting revealed how underworld crime figures launched “Trojan Horse” attacks to control legitimate businesses, exploiting weaknesses in corporate governance laws to manipulate the stock market and steal millions in illegal profits from investors.

Anthony Klan, The Australian
Anthony’s investigations into cosy financial relationships between corporations, lobbyists and government uncovered the biggest Queensland political scandal in 20 years, sparking high-level resignations, a corruption inquiry and government reform.

Tony Raggatt, Townsville Bulletin
Tony broke the local story of emerging troubles at Storm Financial a month before anyone else and then relentlessly pursued it, writing 31 splashes in nine months as one of Australia’s biggest corporate collapses unfolded.

 

Cartoonist of the Year

Warren Brown, The Daily Telegraph
From a Coogee Bay gelato for the prime minister to a moving tribute to the work of Heath Ledger, Warren has the capacity to move readers – and make them laugh. His fine sense of the absurd is displayed in a cartoon after serial killer Ivan Milat cut off one of his fingers.

Mark Knight, Herald Sun
A former News Awards Artist of the Year winner, Mark skewers his victims and cooks them slowly. Peter Garrett and his backflip on uranium mining, Wayne Swan’s temporary deficit and Malcolm Turnbull all came in for the Knight treatment.

Peter Nicholson, The Australian
While also supplying the odd animation for The Australian’s website, Nicholson is a senior member of The Australian’s op-ed page cartooning team and provides page-one pockets that never miss their target. No one is left wondering with his cartoon on Bashir’s Madrassa reunion.

 

Campaign of the Year

The Courier-Mail
The Drugs Scourge campaign gave insight into Queensland’s drug culture and set the agenda for the community, lawmakers and other media. The mix of breaking news, insight pieces, testimonies, graphics and opinion was a perfectly executed campaign.

The Gold Coast Bulletin
Using the surf lifesaver analogy of a rescue patrol, the Bulletin brought together 90 of the sharpest minds on the Gold Coast to formulate a strategy that would deliver immediate relief to the economic downturn. It worked – and is even attributed with reducing unemployment.

The Fiji Times
While other media in Fiji caved in to government intimidation, The Fiji Times fought back with relentlessly creative and courageous ways to bypass censorship despite threats of violence, closure and deportation. Readers are grateful – circulation and website unique browsers are up.

 

Chairman’s Award

There are no finalists in this category. The winner will be announced at the Awards.

 

Designer of the Year

Rebecca Burrell, Sunday magazine
Rebecca has clear, stylish concepts that embrace stories spread over numerous pages. This year she re-designed the magazine into a smaller format without compromising quality or content, while still overseeing production.

Chris Davies, The Sunday Mail, Brisbane
Judges were impressed by the innovative and contemporary look of Chris’ work. His designs for the Black Saturday bushfires and the Michael Jackson tribute complemented the words with meaningful designs to create a superb journalistic package.

Sheree James, The Deal
The judges were particularly impressed with the way Sheree works with photographers to realise her design concepts, resulting in portraits that are always fresh and interesting while delivering graphic punch.

 

Features Journalist of the Year

Trent Dalton, QWeekend
Last year’s winner of this award has delivered again with portfolio of stories combining extensive investigations with great writing. His moving reports from Afghanistan and his exposé on sex trafficking generated a phenomenal response from readers.

Paul Kent, The Daily Telegraph
One judge described Paul’s five-part series on Ebony, starved to death by her parents, as “one of the most powerful pieces I have read”. With an acute eye for detail and the ability to dig up a fresh angle, Paul’s skilful writing delivers punch without cliché.

Kate Legge, The Weekend Australian Magazine
Also a finalist last year, Kate crafts a beautiful feature and conducts exhaustive research to get the best story in the first place. Her piece on tracking first loves on the internet had a huge impact on readers and her profile on Therese Rein was the most forensic yet.

Highly Commended
Clare Harvey, The Sunday Telegraph
Billy Rule, The Sunday Times

 

Photograph of the Year

Alex Coppel, Sunday Herald Sun
Alex’s photo of a CFA fire truck silhouetted against a wall of smoke and flame became an iconic image of the Victorian bushfires. Taken during a time of personal risk, the photo was republished countless times in newspapers and magazines around the world.

Phil Hillyard, The Daily Telegraph
When US golfer John Daly snapped during the Australian Open, Phil Hillyard was there to snap a world exclusive picture. Daly had hit into the rough and lost the plot as well as the ball, grabbing a spectator’s camera and smashing it against a tree.

Gary Ramage, The Daily Telegraph
After a tip-off that serial killer Ivan Milat had hacked off his finger, Gary went to Goulburn to snare the almost impossible – a picture of the prisoner in the grounds of the district hospital. It was a page one exclusive, and the first new shot of Milat in 10 years.

Highly Commended
Rebecca Michael, Sunday Herald Sun

 

Photographer of the Year

Craig Borrow, Herald Sun
The winner of this award in 2007 and a finalist last year, Craig once again delivers a broad portfolio ranging from wildlife shots to studies of the human condition. The judges were impressed by his ability to think outside the square for a genuinely different shot.

Gregg Porteous, The Daily Telegraph
Gregg’s portfolio ranges from a nature study to his true love - sport. His shot of St George-Illawarra NRL player Brett Morris as he dives over in a game against the Cronulla Sharks shows a masterful ability to be in the perfect spot at the right time.

Matt Turner, The Advertiser
Matt’s candid shot of a woman going about her domestic chores during a police siege delighted the judges, while his split-second image of an alleged child rapist was the perfect news photo: revealing a prying eye, but not his identity.

Highly Commended
Alex Coppel, Sunday Herald Sun

 

Scoop of the Year

Danny Lannen, Geelong Advertiser
Danny revealed Geelong teenager Chanelle Rae was cyber bullied before she killed herself, becoming the fourth suicide from the same school in six months. The story lifted taboos on reporting suicide and opened vital national debate.

David Murray, Group London Correspondent
David exposed huge flaws in the police investigation into the disappearance of Australian tourist Britt Lapthorne in Croatia when he was the first person to track down and interview several key witnesses, including the backpackers who were drinking with Britt on the night she vanished.

David Nankervis, Sunday Mail, Adelaide
David broke the biggest political scandal in South Australia for years when he revealed that the Road Safety Minister had clocked up 31 driving offences in just two years. The scoop forced the minister to resign the next day.

 

Specialist Writer of the Year

Justine Ferrari, The Australian
Justine’s coverage of education consistently sets the national agenda by breaking stories, challenging accepted wisdom and scrutinising governments, schools and teachers. Her work has sparked a level of debate that is driving real improvements for children.

Fiona Hudson, Herald Sun
Often starting with only the smallest clue in a tribunal report, Fiona’s instincts for a story combined with her killer investigation skills have led to many compelling scoops. Her exposé of a convicted killer allowed to work as a cabbie prompted parliament to close a legal loophole within a week.

Janne Seletto, North Shore Times
Janne’s coverage of her medical round goes beyond the run-of-the-mill: using her experience as a doctor and her contacts in the medical system, she digs beneath the issues to break powerful scoops which have led to new policies in hospitals and about-turns by the government.

 

Sports Journalist of the Year

Peter Badel, The Sunday Mail, Brisbane
Peter’s strong body of scoops on different sports included a world exclusive revealing Australian swimming star Jessicah Schipper lost out on Olympic gold after her coach sold 30 years of training secrets to the Chinese. The scandal led to the overhaul of pay for top swimming coaches.

Josh Massoud, The Daily Telegraph
A winner or finalist for four years in a row, Josh again impressed the judges with his strong reporting and exclusives. His series exposing 30 years of rorts and poor management at Parramatta single-handedly brought down Denis Fitzgerald, the NRL’s most powerful club official.

Mike Sheahan, Herald Sun
Mike has had one of his strongest years ever, dominating AFL commentary with columns and scoops that consistently set the agenda, including his ultimately successful call for Richmond coach Terry Wallace to resign and a campaign against the controversial practice of tanking.

Highly Commended
Ray Thomas, The Daily Telegraph
Damian Barrett, Herald Sun

 

Sub-editor of the Year

Louise Browne, Leader Newspapers
Louise invented a new word with her playfully alliterative description for a mobile coffee vendor banned from a sports park – Expresso Suppresso – while her head for a story about a colitis sufferer refused access to a toilet, Motion Denied, neatly said it all.

Phil Heads, The Sunday Telegraph
Whose highly amusing headlines included Bad Heir Days for a story about James Packer’s financial woes and Around the World in 80 Gays to sum up Sasha Baron Cohen’s outrageous costumes at the various launches of his film Bruno.

Luke McIlveen, The Advertiser
When radio hosts Kyle and Jackie O hooked a teenage rape victim to a lie detector test, Luke came up with Vile and Tacky O, a headline borrowed by papers nationwide. He also topped the clumsy antics of Taronga Zoo’s baby elephant with Trunk and Disorderly.

 

Young Journalist of the Year

Yoni Bashan, , The Sunday Telegraph
Yoni’s talent for sniffing out a story and his tenacity in pursuing it have led to spectacular successes: he uncovered the identity of two corrupt detectives, exposed a police cover-up of violence at Mardi Gras and secured exclusive interviews about the murder of a Sydney family.

Jessica Craven, Geelong Advertiser
Jessica impressed judges with her live web reporting of a gun siege and her meticulous report about a fundraiser for a former football club captain convicted of rape, a story which required every sentence to be confirmed by at least three sources.

Georgie Pilcher, Herald Sun
Georgie’s portfolio of stories demonstrated initiative and persistence, including her exclusives on a single mother who conned her lover out of $35,000 for cosmetic surgery and her sensitive coverage of the Black Saturday bush fires.