Team members of the Oundle Chronicle attended the Shine Media Awards at Stationers’ Hall on Tuesday 21st June, and left with no fewer than seven awards.
The Shine Awards were presented by Dr Simon Heffer, Senior Columnist at the Daily and Sunday Telegraph and Louise Court, Director of Editorial Strategy and Content for Hearst Magazines UK. The Oundle Chronicle was presented with some of the most prestigious awards at the ceremony, including the prize for “Best Newspaper”, as well as “Best Business Strategy”. It was highly commended for “Best Newspaper Cover” and “Best Community Initiative”.
The paper was also jointly awarded the “BPIF Award for Exceptional Overall Promise”, presented by Charles Jarrold (OO) of the British Printing Industry Federation, which includes a course on “An Introduction to Print” for the Chronicle team.
The judges said: “Best Newspaper in 2016 was deservedly won by Oundle School for the Oundle Chronicle. Winning other categories such as Business Strategy, Community Initiative, Best Cover and Best Feature article, Oundle’s entry scooped awards across the board. The almost professional appearance of this newspaper continues to shine amongst the top echelons of the competition.”
Editor Thomas Lambton’s (B) achievements in the field of journalism were demonstrated by his award of “Best Feature Article”, for an article he wrote about a local resident who went to Syria to fight against ISIS. The judges remarked that Thomas’ article was “beautifully written and crafted, this is reporting at its best. This is an example of clever storytelling which underpins all good journalism”.
As Editor, Thomas was responsible for many of the key stories in the paper, and his work was further recognised with a special award judged by Simon Heffer, “Young Journalist Showing Exceptional Promise”. Thomas’ personal awards include a one-on-one workshop with Simon Heffer, and an online journalism course module from the National Council for the Training of Journalists.
As recipient for one of the four major prizes, the newspaper received a cheque for £1000, and a day of workshops at the TES for members of the team.
The Chronicle was represented by Ruby Goodall (L), incoming editor and Jemima Gurney (K), staff writer, who began the day at Stationers’ Hall with three workshops. They learned about the craft of binding with Shepherds Bookbinders, learned the perils and practicalities of setting up a magazine with Output Magazine, and attended a workshop in news journalism with Sarah Lonsdale of City University London. They also enjoyed a talk by keynote speaker, digital brand guru Torie Chilcott from advertising technology company Scoota who advised the audience on “How to make the most of your career and have fun at the same time”.
The Shine project is supported by the Stationers’ Charitable Foundation and has many high profile sponsors such as the Copyright Licensing Authority, Hearst Corporation, The Printing Charity, The Telegraph, Google, Getty Images and many more.