The judges said in their citation: “The Yorkshire Post proves time and time again why it deserves that accolade. Brilliant and incisive journalism that isn’t afraid to ask the awkward questions – and get the answers. Quite brilliant.”
In a tweet following the announcement, Mitchinson wrote: “This just happened and I’ve just cried. You’ve no idea what this means to me. To us. We don’t get massive audiences online for TYP because we do things differently.
“As well as being a victory for the team I’m privileged to lead, this is a victory for trusted, quality journalism.”
The Post has now added ‘Newspaper of the Year’ and ‘The most trusted newspaper in Britain’ to its masthead, as you can see above.
The winners and highly commended entrants were announced in a special video event replacing a gala awards lunch cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a video message, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden MP said: “Local and regional press have a unique role to play both in holding local politicians to account and in building a sense of community.”
Ian Murray, executive director of the Society of Editors added: “Even though the awards have been affected by the Coronavirus emergency and we were unable to stage the gala lunch we were determined all the fantastic work carried out by the regional and local press did not go unrecognised.
“Anyone looking at the breadth and scale of the entries for this year’s awards will recognise the tremendous and vital role the sector plays in our nation.”
The awards are organised by the Society of Editors and supported by the Facebook Journalism Project.
