History of the News Awards

The Awards had their genesis in the 1970s with a contest in Sydney for the Cadet of the Year, with the prize a secondment to the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, then owned by Rupert Murdoch.

By the early 1990s, when News Limited had far fewer cadets and no longer owned The Post, the Cadet of the Year Award fell by the wayside.

At the instigation of then editorial director John Hartigan (now chairman and chief executive of News Limited), Cadet of the Year was revived in 2000 as part of a new push for improved journalism training in the company, and was turned into a national award which attracted entries from about 60 cadets. The winner went on secondment for eight weeks to one of our newspapers in London.

In 2004, the Award was expanded to encompass another category, this time for senior journalists, called Newsbreaker of the Year. This was extremely well received, and attracted a very high calibre of entries.

After the success of the joint Newsbreaker and Cadet of the Year Awards, it was decided to expand the program to recognise editorial excellence throughout all newsrooms in all areas.

The News Awards as we know them today were born in 2005, with 17 categories. Rupert Murdoch attended the first ceremony, and has attended every year since.

The News Awards are steadily growing in stature and reputation, not only within News Limited but through the industry generally.