The news photography-nominated picture taken by Jon Hewson of lightning over the Mandurah Marina.
Camera IconThe news photography-nominated picture taken by Jon Hewson of lightning over the Mandurah Marina. Credit: Supplied/Supplied

Community News scoops impressive eight nominations at 2018 News Media Awards

Staff WriterStirling Times

COMMUNITY News has notched up an impressive eight nominations in the 2018 News Media Awards.

The national awards recognise excellence in the people, products, purpose and performance of news media brands across the country.

The Stirling Times was nominated for Community News Brand of the Year – the only West Australian newspaper nominated in either the community, regional, daily or weekend news Brand of the Year categories.

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The Times services the largest local government area (by population) in WA and the winning entry included coverage of the contentious ‘twin towers’ development on the Scarborough foreshore – an issue that the paper continues to cover at a level unmatched by other major media outlets.

The Times‘ winning entry also included our front page launch of the 2017 local government election voter turnout campaign – a campaign that has also notched up a News Media Award nomination.

Andrew Ritchie’s nominated photo ‘cage fighting’.
Camera IconAndrew Ritchie’s nominated photo ‘cage fighting’. Credit: Supplied/Supplied

The campaign, which was honoured with a nomination for Best Community or Social-Purpose Initiative, was a group-wide editorial-led initiative to improve voter turnout in last year’s local government elections.

The results spoke for themselves – across 30 metropolitan local council areas, voter turnout rose to 34.58 per cent in the 2017 elections – up from a 28.59 per cent average two years earlier.

In other notable nominations, our Insights and Strategy Director Guy Turner was nominated for News Media Executive of the Year.

Andrew Ritchie’s nominated photograph ‘swimming for gold’.
Camera IconAndrew Ritchie’s nominated photograph ‘swimming for gold’. Credit: Supplied/Andrew Ritchie

Turner has overseen a significant shift in the perception of Community News across the media landscape and has played a key role in a number of partnerships and collaborations since 2017.

Community News’ work with SportsEdge is one such partnership, which has brought unparalleled WAFL coverage through the Footy Radio initiative both online and in print.

This partnership has also been nominated, receiving an impressive nod for Innovation of the Year.

Andrew Ritchie’s nominated photograph ‘driver’.
Camera IconAndrew Ritchie’s nominated photograph ‘driver’. Credit: Supplied/Andrew Ritchie

Community News’ multi-award winning photographers have been recognised once again across multiple categories for their incredible skills.

Andrew Ritchie scored three sports photography nominations, for ‘cage fighting’, ‘driver’ and ‘swimming for gold’.

Jon Hewson was nominated in the news photography category for ‘Mandurah Marina lights’.

Both Ritchie and Hewson have won a plethora of WA and national awards over many years of capturing the local community in Perth.

The awards will be announced at a gala dinner in Sydney on September 14.