Press Gazette's Martin Stabe has picked up the Periodicals Training Council award for best new online journalist, and colleagues Zoe Smith and Sarah Lagan were highly commended in the features and news categories respectively.
The top PTC award — for new journalist of the year — went to Emily Wright, from Building, this year, who was described as "a truly memorable writer who produces pieces delivered with fresh pace and of great variety". The CMPi weekly title continued its run of award winning with best new business news journalist of the year going to Sarah Richardson. At Press Gazette's Magazine Awards last month Building's Mark Leftly won business reporter of the year. Wright joined the CMPi graduate training scheme in September 2005, working on Pulse magazine, The Publican and Building, where she has since returned to work as a news reporter. Wright said her win was "a testament to the standard of trade magazines" and said she tried to give readers something they did not expect with her features. "When I interviewed [entrepreneur] Duncan Bannatyne, I wasn't just concentrating on how he answered the questions and reacted to me, but how he reacted to everyone else around him — I felt that these reactions gave me a picture of the real person — as he was more guarded with me in his capacity as an interviewee. I made sure I integrated these little asides and conversations into the piece."
On her future plans, Wright said she hoped to concentrate on improving her skills, and added: "A year-and-a-half ago I was on work experience placements where I was sent out to buy props for photos and biscuits for Max Clifford — now I'm writing about government schemes and travelling abroad to cover stories and meet new people — it's staggering how quickly things can change!"
Online winner Stabe, who joined Press Gazette in January this year, said he had spent most of the year working behind the scenes on the website's relaunch and online forum, but he hoped he would get an opportunity to continue its growth. He said: "Press Gazette has some great plans up its sleeve for the next stage of the site's relaunch — I hope I'll get a chance to implement them, either here or at a site with similar aspirations."
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On his future plans, he added: "The really interesting work in the future will be in new forms of investigative journalism that are only possible online, like database mashups and networked journalism — where professionals and bloggers collaborate to complete complex investigations. I hope I'll get a chance to work on projects like that."
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