14/04/2008

A journalist at Scotland on Sunday newspaper has been named Journalist of the Year at awards celebrating the best in the regional press.

Richard Elias took the title at the Circulation, Editorial and Promotions Awards, run by the Newspaper Society. 

And he was not the only Scottish winner, the Sunday Herald, for instance, taking gold in the Multimedia Campaign of the Year category.

Elias joined Scotland on Sunday a year ago after spells with the Daily Record and the Liverpool Post and Echo. He was named Reporter of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards two years ago.

Said Scotland on Sunday’s editor, Les Snowdon: “Richard has perhaps the best crime contacts in the country. His work on the Glasgow airport terror attack and the Tobin case was outstanding, and deserved to be recognised.”

Elsewhere, in the Promotion of the Year (daily and Sunday paid-for newspapers) category, the Evening Express finished runner-up to the Bristol Evening Post, for its Mr and Mrs campaign.

In the Point-of-Sale Promotion of the Year (all regional paid-for newspapers) category, The Herald and Evening Times finished second and third, for (a) their vending point of sale and (b) their window displays, counter maps and edge lites.

The Evening Times specifically picked up a gold and a silver in the Newsbill of the Year (all regional paid-for newspapers) category for (a) Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road? and (b) Kung Po Fighting.

The Press and Journal, meanwhile, picked up a bronze in the Outdoor Campaign of the Year (all regional paid-for newspapers) category, for Get Closer to Inverness. That same campaign also earned the paper a silver in the Reader Acquisition and Retention Campaign of the Year (all regional paid-for newspapers)

It was the Sunday Herald that picked up gold in the Multimedia Campaign of the Year (all regional paid-for newspapers), for No Ordinary Sunday; while The Scotsman took silver, in the same category, for Get Sharp.

The Scotsman took silver in the Value-Added Product of the Year (daily and Sunday paid-for newspapers), for Recommended. Sister title, Scotland on Sunday, also tool silver, this time in the Single-Copy Sales Initiative of the Year (all regional paid-for newspapers), for its giving away a free Scots Dictionary. In the same category, bronze went to The Herald/Evening Times, for its See You Jimmy hat, given away  when Glasgow was last year hosting football’s UEFA Cup final.

Still with football, the Evening Times picked up a bronze for doing a Barcelona edition of its paper - for Rangers fans following their team in Spain. That was in the Innovative Newspaper of the Year (all regional paid-for newspapers) category.

The destination of the top title - Regional Newspaper of the Year (for which Scotland on Sunday was shortlisted) - was Birmingham-based the Sunday Mercury.

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