'Sunday Mercury' Grabs Newspaper of the Year Title
Birmingham’s ‘Sunday Mercury’ has finally knocked Stoke-on-Trent’s Sentinel group off its perch in the race to find the best newspaper in the Midlands.
The Sentinel group has walked off with the ‘Newspaper of the Year’ accolade for the past four years in Birmingham Press Club’s annual Midlands Media Awards – but its run of success has at last been halted.
“It was going to have to be a very good newspaper to stop Stoke – and that’s what the ‘Mercury’ is,” said chairman of judges and ‘Daily Telegraph’ assistant editor Andrew Pierce.
“It’s a model Sunday newspaper, with consistently good stories right from its front page exclusives to its entertaining mix of all-round coverage.”
Runners-up in the competition – held on Wednesday (21st November) at iconic Baskerville House in Birmingham city centre – were the ‘Mercury’s stablemates, the ‘Coventry Telegraph’ and the ‘Birmingham Mail’.
Just to prove that the big newspaper groups don’t always get everything their own way, the other major award in this year’s Media Awards went to one of the smallest newspapers in the region, the ‘Hinckley Times’. 
‘Times’ reporter Amy Harris made a remarkable Media Awards debut by winning ‘Scoop of the Year’ and coming runner-up in ‘Newcomer of the Year’.
Her award winning entry focused on an unusual tale about a local man who, upon collecting his mail from the postman outside his house, elected to dispense with some junk mail in a nearby litter bin.
However, he was soon tracked down by a petty bureaucrat from the local council, who decided his ‘crime’ was so serious that it warranted draconian action in the form of a fine.
The reason that the story became ‘Scoop of the Year’ was that after being printed in the ‘Hinckley Times’, it was picked up by not only the nationals, but various media all around the world.
Andrew said: “All reporters dream that their story is going to make headlines around the world – few actually do so, but certainly the dream came true for Amy. What a fabulous start to her career in journalism!”
Other prizes in the Midlands Media Awards – now in its fifth year – went to Ben Hurst of the ‘Birmingham Mail’ (‘News Reporter of the Year (daily)’); Richard Botley of the ‘North Shropshire Chronicle’ (‘News Reporter of the Year (weekly)’); and Lorne Jackson, ‘Sunday Mercury’, (‘Feature Writer of the Year’).
The ‘Birmingham Mail’s Brian Dick was named ‘Sports Journalist of the Year’; and the same newspaper’s business editor, Jon Griffin, retained his ‘Business Journalist of the Year’ title.
In the photographic categories, Matthew Alexander of the ‘Nottingham Evening Post’ was named ‘News Photographer of the Year’, and Dale Martin of the ‘Birmingham Post and Mail’ won ‘Sports Photographer of the Year.’
Other winners were Alex Hannam (‘Leicester Mercury’) ‘Trevor Roberts Award’, which is awarded to best photographic newcomer; Richard Ashmore (‘Coventry Times’), ‘Newcomer of the Year’, and the Shropshire Magazine retained its ‘Magazine of the Year’ title.
Last but not least, John McLaren (‘Birmingham Mail’) won ‘Headline of the Year’ with his simple but effective ‘More Tee Vicar’, which related to a story about a golf-loving member of the clergy.
John Lamb, chairman of the Birmingham Press Club, which organised the awards, said: “Yet again, the awards have demonstrated the huge range of talent out there in the Midlands media industry.
“It’s particularly encouraging to see ‘Scoop of the Year’ going to a reporter just setting out on her career at one of the region’s small publications.
“That is surely as good an indicator as any of the quality of the talent that is continuing to emerge from our region.
“The awards evening was once again a sell out, and we hope this continues next year when the event moves, by popular demand, to an earlier time slot, in summer. More details about this will be announced in due course.”
This year’s sponsors included Royal Mail (Birmingham Press Club’s overall sponsor for 2007/8); Aston Science Park; Bevan Brittan; Advantage West Midlands; Barclays Bank; East Midlands Airport; Just Good Food; and Tagetfollow, the developer behind the recent multi-million pound renovation of Baskerville House.
West Midlands Media Awards 2007 Launched
West Midlands Media Awards 2006
