Fairfax Media’s North Richmond Print Centre has been named a finalist in the Print Centre of the Year category in this year’s News Media Awards for its work on The Sydney Morning Herald, just days after the publisher announced the masthead would now be printed by News Corp.
North Richmond is one of three finalists for the coveted award, alongside News Corp Australia’s Yandina Print Centre, which prints the Sunshine Coast Daily, and its Townsville Print Centre, home of the Townsville Bulletin.
Former rivals Fairfax Media and News Corp last week announced a ‘landmark’ plan to share their printing networks in a consolidation restructure that will see Fairfax close its Ormiston and Beresfield printing centres, with the loss of more than 120 print jobs.
As part of the deal, Fairfax metropolitan newspapers currently produced at North Richmond, including The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian Financial Review, will now be printed at News Corp’s printing site in Chullora.
The two newspaper giants again dominate this year’s nominations. For the first time, Stuff NZ - the New Zealand news arm of Fairfax Media - has contenders for two of the top trophies – Daily News Brand of the Year and Weekend News Brand of the Year – alongside News Corp Australia’s The Australian and Fairfax’s The Australian Financial Review.
Stuff has been able to enter the top award categories this year following a rebrand of the awards from 'newspaper' to 'news brand.'
Fairfax’s The Age and The Australian Financial Review and their associated weekend titles are finalists for both News Brand awards, competing against News Corp’s The Australian.
Community News Group’s Stirling Times lines up against several Fairfax and News Corp titles including The Maitland Mercury and Manly Daily for Community News Brand of the Year, while The Fiji Times, Newcastle Herald and NT News compete for Regional News Brand of the Year.
Click here to see the full list of finalists.
The new News Story of the Year Award has highlighted some of Australia and New Zealand’s best journalism from the past 12 months. Nominations include The Sydney Morning Herald’s Kate McClymont’s #MeToo expose detailing allegations against media personality Don Burke, Stuff Circuit’s investigation into New Zealand’s involvement in the Afghanistan War and NZME’s series on youth suicide.
The six finalists for the prestigious Hegarty Scholarship for Best Young Executive (Under 35) are News Corp’s Holly Yates, Lauren Moloney, Robert Tidball and Nadja Fleet; Fairfax’s Jordan Philp; and McPherson Media Group’s Tyla Harrington.
The News Media Awards are the latest iteration of the PANPA Newspaper of the Year Awards, modernising the event to better align the categories with the changing nature of the industry.
Winners will be announced at the 2018 News Media Awards gala dinner, hosted by The Chaser’s Craig Reucassel and Andrew Hansen, on Friday 14th September at the Hilton Sydney.
Purchase tickets here for the Awards gala dinner, or to register for the INFORM News Media Summit (daytime), visit www.informsummit.com