Rotorua Daily Post wins top honour at Voyager Media Awards

The Rotorua Daily Post had extensive coverage of Covid in its award winning entry. Photo / NZME

The Rotorua Daily Post has been named the Regional Newspaper of the Year at the prestigious Voyager Media Awards in Auckland last night.

The judges said the Rotorua Daily Post was "an absolute stand-out" for Regional Newspaper of the Year.

"There is no doubt that local news remains at the heart of this publication."

''A great selection of news from across the community and a high standard of reporting. The Rotorua Daily Post delivers a meaty read that is both fresh and relevant.''

They also said the newspaper had enjoyed what was almost unheard of these days – higher readership figures.

''It's not hard to see why."

Editor Scott Inglis paid credit to his team and said he was incredibly proud of the great journalism they had and continue to produce.

''They are an awesome team of talented journalists and photographers and this is reflected in the work they do. This is an amazing achievement.''

The Bay of Plenty Times was also a finalist in the Regional Newspaper of the Year and Best Newspaper Front Page categories.

Meanwhile, Rotorua Daily Post and Bay of Plenty Times journalist Kiri Gillespie was a finalist in the Regional Reporter of the year alongside former NZME journalistSamantha Olley while NZME nabbed a bevy of honours.

For an unprecedented second straight year, the NZ Herald has snared the extraordinary "digital double", winning the supreme Website of the Year and App of the Year accolades.

Judges acclaimed nzherald.co.nz "a clear winner" over fellow finalists RNZ, The Spinoff and Stuff to win the highly prestigious Website of the Year award after one of the biggest 12 months of news in modern history.

And the NZ Herald App was described as "world class", with judges saying the Herald's design and functionality, range of contributors and more consistent approach to a national audience gave it the prize over finalists the Eastern App and Stuff.

Matt Nippert was named Political Journalist of the Year and runner-up Business Journalist of the Year; Nicholas Jones was Feature Writer of the Year, Kurt Bayer was named Best Regional Journalist, and Brett Phibbs was named Photographer of the Year.

Bayer also won the best crime reporting category, while Tamsyn Parker won best personal finance reporting category and Tom Dillane the best general reporting category.

As well as the supreme photography prize, Phibbs won two photography categories – best news photography and best sports photography and was a runner-up for best photo story-essay.

Greg Bruce was named winner of the best feature writing – general category and Isaac Davison the runner-up of the best feature writing – social issues (including health and education) category.