No denying that the Mail's website is very good. I've said so before.
The Big winner though, was the Times...
// The premier awards for British journalism were handed out at a glittering ceremony at the Lancaster London Hotel last night.
The Times dominated the main accolades of the evening winning the coveted Newspaper of the Year Award while the paper’s investigative reporting into tax avoidance by big name stars was recognised in its Scoop of the Year, News Team of the Year and News Reporter of the Year honours.
Alexi Mostrous and Fay Schlesinger’s delve into complex schemes used by celebrities to shield their earnings from the taxman was described by the judges as “a cracking expose that had massive ramifications. Not only did it shock and anger the public it set the public agenda.”
The investigation also won Mostrous the News Reporter of the Year award.
The judges said that in a year of Jubilee coverage, The Times was at the top of its game with both print and online news, current affairs and features.
They added: “Offering impressive quality combined with superb scoops, columnists that are among the most well-known in the industry and increasingly innovative digital offerings, it is well on its way to silencing its pay wall critics.”
Its sister paper, The Sunday Times, took home the most awards of the evening winning five prizes in a year in which their chief sports reporter David Walsh’s 14-year investigation into Lance Armstrong and doping was finally vindicated.
The judges described 2012 for Walsh as: “the culmination of a great sports story. Not only did he stick to his guns, he left everyone else in his wake.”
Walsh took home the Sports Journalist of the Year award and was also recognised in their Sports Team of the Year accolade.
The Foreign Reporter of the Year award was delivered posthumously to Marie Colvin who was killed while reporting from Syria for The Sunday Times.
Her powerful report on the scale of suffering in Baba Amr in Syria was tragically her last piece but one the judges described as being “richly deserved of recognition in its own right.
“She was the foreign reporter who set the standard for others to follow. Her last dispatch, a brilliant piece of reportage, shows why she was so revered.”
The award was accepted by John Witherow, acting editor of The Times, who edited its sister paper for 18 years amid a standing ovation for the late reporter. //