APN titles win “Grand Slam” of New Zealand Journalism

Media Release – 30 May 2011

APN titles win “Grand Slam” of New Zealand Journalism

APN News & Media titles took out the “grand slam” of New Zealand journalism – winning the major gongs at the annual Canon Media Awards for 2011.

The Canon (formerly Qantas) awards are the premier competition for New Zealand media and are contested by all newspapers, magazines and websites from across the country.

The New Zealand Herald newspaper was a triple winner, taking out Newspaper of the year, Best Daily over 30,000 circulation and Weekly Newspaper of the Year with the Weekend Herald. Nzherald.co.nz was judged best New Zealand website and Canvas the best newspaper inserted magazine.

The awards are judged by a national panel and are based on submitted entries and in some cases continuous assessment.

Judges praised The New Zealand Herald's comprehensive, in depth coverage of international, national and local stories and particularly rated its coverage of the Pike River disaster, which included an exclusive interview with one of the survivors.

The winning entry also included the first interview with Rochelle Crewe 40 years after her parents were murdered, and coverage of the September Christchurch earthquake and MPs' spending scandal.

Nzherald.co.nz had demonstrated the ability of online journalism to take on complex, emotive stories in a manner that adds greater depth than television, radio or newspaper coverage ever could, the judges said.

As well as the four overall awards, the Herald won eight other honours, including best investigation – for business writer Karyn Scherer's work on Natural Dairy, the Chinese bidder for the Crafar farms.

Peter Calder of the Herald on Sunday was judged the best editorial opinion writer.

Chief executive of New Zealand Media, Martin Simons, said the acknowledgement of the company’s high quality journalism was terrific endorsement for teams that strived to be the best.

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