John Hartigan
chairman and chief executive News Limited 

Welcome to the 2011 News Awards.

With so much rapid and dramatic change in our industry, we are witnessing our editorial teams producing incredible advances in our journalism - the way we work and how we think about what we do.

What hasn’t changed is our commitment to excellence.

I believe this year’s awards will showcase many new, innovative and creative examples of quality journalism as it evolves in the digital age.

The awards will acknowledge people who are driving the change to help us become a truly multi-platform publisher of news, information and entertainment.

This year, four categories have changed and some of the criteria for other categories have been revised to reflect the multi-platform nature of our business. Digital journalism is no longer a stand-alone category; it is now an integral part of how we will assess entries for every category.

A new category, Innovation of the Year, will recognise the work of those who develop, craft and implement new ideas and new ways and means of story-telling on any platform. Whatever the technology, it is the quality of what we publish that counts. It is the reason for our success in the past and, without doubt, the beacon to our future.

The News Awards are the pinnacle of that excellence in journalism. They represent the standard of work we all strive for, as well as an opportunity to admire, thank and honour the people who produce it every day.

I encourage you to enter the awards and wish you the best of luck.