Once again, there’s been a massive response to The British Press Awards – the ‘Oscars’ of British journalism. Nearly 800 entries are now under scrutiny by the teams of judging panels.
This is despite the fact that The Sun and the News of the World have not sent in any entries this year.
For the third year running, columnist of the year is the most popular category – with 68 of the country’s most opinionated journalists battling for this most contentious of prizes. Feature writer of the year, interviewer of the year and critic of the year each have around 50 contenders, as do business and financial writer of the year and sports writer of the year. Shortlists for the categories for individual journalists will be published in Press Gazette next Friday. The team, visual and newspaper category shortlists will be published the following week, on 21 February.
The main judging panels, compiled from senior journalists from all national newspaper groups and chaired by former Observer editor Donald Trelford, will then pick the winners.
The awards ceremony takes place at the Hilton Park Lane on the evening of Tuesday 18 March.
The event is always a sell-out, so table bookings should be made as early as possible by telephoning organiser Foy Harries on 020 8565 4359, or e-mail foyh@quantumbusinessmedia.com.
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