Property Week journalist takes top prize at PTC New Talent Awards

Nick Johnstone of UBM title Property Week has claimed the top award at the Periodicals Training Council’s inaugural New Talent Awards.

Johnstone was handed the grand prix 2012 at a ceremony in London last night (February 1).

He was also named new business features journalist of the year.

This year the PTC changed its award scheme, expanding “to reflect the range of roles across the publishing sector”, it explained in a release.

The awards recognised the “most promising student journalists of the year”, with the undergraduate title going to Stacey Bartlett from the University of Central Lancashire and Rakesh Ramchurn from City University named in the postgraduate category.

Immediate Media Co, the company formed in October from the amalgamation of BBC Magazines, Origin Publishing and Magicalia, was the biggest winner on the night, taking home three awards.

Winners of the PTC New Talent Awards 2012

• Grand Prix 2012: Nick Johnstone, Property Week, United Business Media
• New Publisher of the Year: Martin Stahel, Immediate Media Co.
• New Ad Manager of the Year: Ossie Bayram, Hearst Magazines UK
• New Business News Journalist of the Year: Carl Brown, Inside Housing, Ocean Media Group
• New Business Features Journalist of the Year: Nick Johnstone, Property Week, United Business Media
• New Editor of the Year: Tom Cullen, ShortList Media
• New Consumer Specialist/Customer Journalist of the Year: Louise Ridley, Immediate Media Co.
• New Designer of the Year: Elliott Web, Q Magazine, Bauer Media
• New Consumer Journalist of the Year: Amy Grier, ShortList Media
• New Sales Executive of the Year: Courtney Maggs-Jones, JLD Media
• New Classified Sales Executive of the Year: Sereena Gill, IPC Media
• New Section Editor of the Year: Zoe Smeaton, Chemist+Druggist, UBM Medica
• New Marketing Executive of the Year: Caroline Motson, Immediate Media Co
• New Direct Marketing Executive of the Year: Elizabeth Telford, Newsquest Special Media
• Most Promising Student Journalist of the Year (Undergraduate): Stacey Bartlett, the University of Central Lancashire
• Most Promising Student Journalist of the Year (Postgraduate): Rakesh Ramchurn, City University, London

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Pulitzer Prize revises breaking news category to reflect real-time reporting

Statue of Joseph Pulitzer in New York. Image by ConspiracyofHappiness on Flickr. Some
rights reserved

The Pulitzer Prize board has announced some changes to the awards, taking its submissions process online and revising the breaking news category to reflect real-time reporting.

The changes to the breaking news category suggest that coverage on social networks and liveblogs may be considered for the prestigious prize from 2012.

According to a release from the prize board, the revised definition for the category reads:

For a distinguished example of local reporting of breaking news that, as quickly as possible, captures events accurately as they occur, and, as times passes, illuminates, provides context and expands upon the initial coverage.

This replaces the previous definition:

For a distinguished example of local reporting of breaking news, with special emphasis on the speed and accuracy of the initial coverage, using any available journalistic tool, including text reporting, videos, databases, multimedia or interactive presentations or any combination of those formats, in print or online or both

The board added that it would be “disappointing if an event occurred at 8am and the first item in an entry was drawn from the next day’s newspaper”.

Last year’s Pulitzers saw no award given in the breaking news category for the first time.

There were three nominations – the Chicago Tribune for coverage of the deaths of two firefighters, the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald for their coverage of the earthquake in Haiti, and the Tennessean, Nashville, for coverage of flood in the state – but no winner. Winners are required to gain a majority vote on the 16-strong board.

The other major change is that applicants will also now be able to make their full submission online.

“The new entry system ends the submission of entries on paper, typically in the form of a scrapbook, a practice dating to the start of the prizes 95 years ago. All entry material, ranging from stories to photographs, graphics and video, must now be submitted in a digital form through a special Pulitzer entry site,” the release from the Prize said.

Last December Pulitzer Prize rules changed to include multimedia journalism, allowing entries to be submitted as text reporting, videos, databases, multimedia, interactive presentations or any combination of those formats.

See the full release on the Pulitzer Prize site.

Coverage elsewhere

Poynter: Pulitzer Prizes change breaking news category to emphasize ‘real-time’ reporting

Nieman Journalism Lab: Could Pulitzer changes mean an award for live tweeting?

Associated Press: Pulitzer journalism entries to be submitted online

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#soe11: Winners of NCTJ awards for excellence

The National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) today announced the winners of its awards for excellence in journalism, before an audience of editors at the Society of Editors conference.

The 11 winners are listed below:

Student news journalism of the year: Scarlett Wrench, junior sub- editor at Men’s Health

Trainee news journalism of the year: Rachel Butler, trainee journalist at the Derby Telegraph

Student sports journalism of the year: Tim Groves, Planet Rugby/freelance

Trainee sports journalism of the year: Rob Setchell, the Cambridgeshire Times/Wisbech Standard

Student features of the year: Jessica Baldwin, freelance features writer

Trainee features of the year: Kate Proctor, chief writer for Limited Edition, Westmorland Gazette

Student top scoop of the year: Larisa Brown, Daily Mail graduate trainee

Trainee top scoop of the year: Andrew Dickens, Cambridge News trainee

Photographer of the year: Matthew Harrison, freelance

Reporter of the year: Robert Alderson, online editor for It’s Nice That

Student journalist of the year: Rosie Taylor, Daily Mail trainee reporter

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The Guardian Awards for Digital Innovation open for entries

The Guardian has today (Monday, 24 October) launched its re-branded award scheme, with a focus of creative uses of technology.

The 2012 Guardian Awards for Digital Innovation has new categories including ‘best new website’, ‘tech guru of the year’ and the ‘best new app’.

Called the 2012 Megas, the scheme has adapted “to celebrate and recognise creative achievements and inspiring entrepreneurial spirit within the field of technology”, the Guardian said in a release.

The announcement said:

The 2012 Guardian Awards for Digital Innovation, which began in 2008 as the MediaGuardian Innovation Awards, will focus on cutting-edge digital accomplishments, in line with Guardian News & Media’s digital-first strategy, announced earlier this year. For the first time, one of the winners will get the rare opportunity to guest-edit the Guardian’s MediaGuardian website for a day.

Chair of the judging panel Dan Sabbagh, Guardian News & Media’s head of media & technology, said in the release:

These awards have championed a variety of digital innovations since 2008. Our past winners are testament to the creativity and entrepreneurial spirit of the UK’s digital scene, and with more free-to-enter categories than ever before, I’m looking forward to hearing about the wide range of inspiring projects that are out there. Offering one winner the opportunity to guest edit the MediaGuardian website is a new move for us, and I’m sure this will result in some fascinating issues being covered on our website once the winners are announced next year.

The judging panel for the awards includes Wired editor-at-large Ben Hammersley and TV presenter Aleks Krotoski.

The closing date for applications is 5pm on Friday, 20 January. The winners will be announced in March 2012 at a presentation ceremony in London.

The new categories are:

Free to enter

• Tech guru of the year (sponsored by Creative Industries Knowledge Transfer Network)
• Young innovator of the year (sponsored by Wired)
• Best startup business (sponsored by Taylor Wessing)
• Best startup leader / CEO

£200 per entry

• Best new website
• Best new app
• Best digital campaign – communications, marketing & PR
• Best use of technology for social change

There is more information at Guardian.co.uk/megas, including a list of previous winners.

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Slideshow of winning images from Picture Editors Guild awards 2011

The Picture Editors Guild presented its awards last night, with Associated Press photographer Matt Dunham named as photographer of the year. Matt captured the widely distributed image of Prince Charles and Camilla inside their car as it was attacked last year.

We have created a slideshow of some of the winning entries for this year’s contest:

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Citizen journalism site Blottr nominated for Smarta 100 award

Citizen journalism news site Blottr has been nominated for the 2011 Smarta 100 list of “the most resourceful, original, exciting and disruptive small businesses in the UK”.

User-generated news site Blottr currently includes news from seven UK cities and employs a ‘Write to Earn’ scheme that allows citizen journalists to earn money per multiple of page impressions.

Blottr is the only citizen news site up for an award. The full list of nominated business is here, where you can vote.

The overall winner will be announced on 21 September and will receive £10,000.

According to Smarta 100, last year’s winners have gone on to partner with the likes of LinkedIn and Lastminute.com.

Founder of Blotter Adam Baker told Journalism.co.uk:

We are absolutely delighted to be recognised by Smarta as one of the top 100 startups in the UK.

The calibre of past winners and the other 99 companies selected this year, underlines the progress Blottr has made and the ever-increasing popularity of our service and citizen journalism.

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Finalists of Online Journalism Awards announced

The Online News Association has this week announced the finalists of its Online Journalism Awards for this year. There are more than 100 finalists across 28 categories which produced shortlists.

You can see the full list here. The results will be announced at the 2011 ONA Conference and Online Journalism Awards Banquet on 24 September in Boston.

This year, ONA introduced changes to acknowledge the explosion of journalistic innovation on new digital platforms. Entries for all awards were open to news produced for any digital device. Eight awards come with a total of $33,000 in prize money, courtesy of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Gannett Foundation, which also is supporting innovative investigative work with two $2,500 awards.

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War correspondents’ awards adds online journalism prize

The 18th Bayeux-Calvados Awards for War Correspondents are now open for entries, with the addition of a new category for online journalism.

A release from the award organisers said: “With the rise of digital technology, technological developments and changes in the way in which news is broadcast, new forms of narration have been created.

“There has been a vast increase in the number of multimedia projects in recent years, with the introduction of web documentaries, short multimedia works, video-graphics, etc. These new formats provide opportunities for finding out about international news in other ways (new information methods, new audiences).”

There are seven other prizes given out as part of the awards, for: written press; television; radio; photography; grand format television; and a young reporter prize.

Journalists have until 10 June to submit work photo, radio, television and written press reports on a conflict or news event relating to the fight for freedom and democracy. Submissions must have been made between the 1 June, 2010 and the 3 May, 2011.

There is a €7,000 (£6,300) grant to be won in each category, except for the Young Reporters category which offers €3,000 (£2,700).

The president of the jury for the prizes is Mort Rosenblum, a veteran US war correspondent and author of several books.

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News teams nominated for 2011 BAFTAs

Nominations have been announced for the 2011 British Academy Television Awards, with production teams at the BBC, Channel 4, ITV and Sky all nominated within the News Coverage category.

The production teams behind BBC1′s Ten O’Clock News: Handover of Power, Channel 4 News: From Chile’s Ecstacy to Congo’s Agony, ITV News at Ten: The Cumbria Murders and Sky News: Egypt Crisis, all made the official list of nominations.

Other categories within the awards, which will be presented at a ceremony on 22 May in London, include Current Affairs, Single Documentary and Factual Series.

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Media release: BBC gets Queen’s Award for sports graphics system

The BBC reports its Research & Development department received a Queen’s Award for Enterprise today for its TV sports graphics system Piero.

By laying graphics over the TV pictures, Piero gives sports presenters and pundits another way to view and analyse crucial incidents in the games, and explain them more effectively to the audience.

According to the broadcaster the Piero system was initially created by BBC R&D and has since been developed and licensed internationally by Red Bee Media, with the award being jointly awarded to both organisations.

Piero works by creating a virtual stadium, which is synchronised to the “real” pictures coming from the TV cameras. Pictures of real players are transposed into the virtual stadium, where it is possible to view and analyse the game from different angles in animated sequences.

In-game incidents, such as offsides and forward passes can be assessed by pundits from the best angle – even if the play has not been captured at this angle.

The system can also render graphics such as distance markings so that they appear tied to the pitch.

The BBC press release can be seen here…

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