Stuff claims swag of top honours at 2019 Voyager Media Awards

Friday, 17 May 2019

Stuff has enjoyed outstanding success at the country's annual media awards, winning recognition for all aspects of its journalism including the best news website, the best newspaper, digital innovation, agenda-setting projects, in-depth reporting, breaking news coverage and the best photography.

Stuff was named the best news website at the Voyager Media Awards ceremony in Auckland on Friday night. The Sunday Star-Times won three awards including the coveted newspaper of the year title, the Waikato Times repeated its feat of 2018 in being judged the best newspaper with circulation of up to 30,000, and The Press finished runner-up as the best newspaper with circulation over 30,000.

Stuff journalists were prominent in the major reporting categories, and its visual journalists enjoyed particular recognition. On top of that, three editorial projects won major categories, and Stuff editor in chief Patrick Crewdson was honoured as New Zealand's editorial executive of the year, also receiving the pre-eminent individual prize of the awards.

The breadth of the company's successes at the awards reflected the journalistic excellence Stuff routinely delivered across the board, editorial director Mark Stevens said.

That included:

* The Photographer of the Year, jointly won by Braden Fastier of Nelson and Auckland-based Chris Skelton.

Stuff's NZ Made/Nā Nīu Tīreni project: When the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, Māori owned more than 66 million acres of land. By 1975, almost 97 per cent had been sold or taken. (Last published February 1, 2021.)

* Feature Writer of the Year (long-form), awarded to Christchurch-based national correspondent Charlie Mitchell, who specialises in environmental reporting.

* Sports Journalist of the Year to national correspondent Dana Johannsen.

* Regional Journalist of the Year to Hamish McNeilly of Dunedin.

* Community Journalist of the Year to Torika Tokalau of the Western Leader in Auckland.

* National correspondent Carmen Parahi was runner-up as Reporter of the Year.

In awarding Stuff the best news website award, the judges said the website 'leads New Zealand journalism sites with its innovation and creativity'. They highlighted its excellence in project work, including Quick - Save the Planet (climate change), NZ Made/Nā Nīu Tīreni (the history of Treaty breaches) and #MeToo.

The Sunday Star-Times enjoyed outstanding success in the newspaper categories, winning the awards for best front page and best weekly newspaper, as well as the Voyager Newspaper of the Year award. The paper had enjoyed a 'stellar' 2018, judges said. 'It outshone its rivals by breaking a series of stories that set the national news agenda, dominated public discourse and held authority to account.'

Chris Skelton's portrait of Marlon Williams, an example of the skill which saw Skelton named a joint winner of Photographer of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.

Stuff demonstrated its strength in team and project work, dominating these categories.

Breaking the story about the strange immigration case of Karel Sroubek was part of a 'stellar year' for the Sunday Star-Times, recognised at the Voyager Media Awards.

Stuff Circuit - the investigative team of Paula Penfold, Eugene Bingham, Toby Longbottom and Phil Johnson - once again achieved awards recognition, this year winning the Best Innovation in Digital Storytelling award for Caught, its video-led investigation into slavery on the high seas and to uncover whether fish tainted by those practices ends up in New Zealand.

Nelson-based visual journalist Braden Fastier's photo of teenager Rilee McMeekin and her horse Solly was one which caught the judges' eye, as he claimed top honours at the Voyager Media Awards.

An investigative series into the Department of Corrections' use of motels to house recently released sex-offenders - a team project led by senior investigative journalist Blair Ensor and national correspondent Tony Wall - was named best team investigation.

Stuff's West Side Stories project shone a light on a town plagued by unruly youth and petty crime and the efforts made by locals to reclaim the Huntly that was.

National correspondent Charlie Mitchell's in-depth coverage of New Zealand's shrinking glaciers was part of a strong portfolio which put him among the top honours at the Voyager Media Awards.

And the prize for Best Editorial Project or Campaign went to Made in New Zealand/Nā Nīu Tīreni. This major interactive project traced the history of the Treaty of Waitangi and the vast scope of breaches of it since it was signed in 1840.

Waikato Times columnist Max Christoffersen received an opinion writing award posthumously, after his death in March.

Torika Tokalau of the Western Leader, Community Reporter of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.

Stuff's Otago reporter Hamish McNeilly, Regional Reporter of the Year for 2019 at the Voyager Media Awards.

National correspondent Charlie Mitchell, honoured for his feature writing and environmental reporting at the Voyager Media Awards.

National correspondent Dana Johannsen, Sports Reporter of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.

Braden Fastier of Nelson, named joint winner of Photographer of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.

Chris Skelton shared the Photographer of the Year title at the Voyager Media Awards.

Stuff editor in chief Patrick Crewdson, named as the Editorial Executive of the Year and Wolfson Fellow at the Voyager Media Awards.

Stuff Circuit - Eugene Bingham, Paula Penfold, Phil Johnson and Toby Longbottom - were recognised for innovation in digital story-telling at the Voyager Media Awards.

The exceptional quality of Stuff's visual journalism was reflected in its domination of the photography categories, winning five of the six categories, including Fastier's and Skelton's joint title of Photographer of the Year. Fastier also won Best Photography - News and/or Sport. David White won Best Feature/Photographic Essay. Alden Williams won Best Photography - Portrait. George Heard won Best Photography - Junior, with Rosa Woods runner-up in that category. Woods also won Best Videographer - Junior. The judges lavished praise across the photography winners, including describing the two Photographer of the Year recipients, Fastier and Skelton, as 'versatile and brilliant' and displaying 'incredible range'.

In the reporting categories, Stuff's success was led by Charlie Mitchell. Besides his feature writing award, he picked up the prize for environmental/sustainability reporting, and was joint runner-up for science and technology reporting. Judges described Mitchell as 'an exemplary current affairs feature writer who is original in his ideas, dogged in his research, and whose crisp writing carries the reader through in-depth, often complex stories'.

Hannah Martin won the nib Health Journalism Scholarship - Junior, and Tony Wall was runner-up in the Māori Affairs Reporter category. In a poignant result in the opinion writing categories, the award for best general and/or sport writing went to Max Christoffersen, a columnist for the Waikato Times, who died in early March, aged 57. Kylie Klein-Nixon was runner-up in the same category.

Rounding off the night's success for Stuff, Patrick Crewdson received the prestigious Wolfson Fellowship, which provides for 10 weeks' study at Cambridge University's Wolfson College. The judges described Crewdson as leading Stuff with passion, courage, purpose and ambition.