Smile - you're with the 'Times'

Waikato Times photographers were wearing some of the biggest grins at last night's Qantas Media Awards as three of them won awards on a night when your newspaper was regularly represented on stage.

Qantas awards went to chief photographer Peter Drury, in the seniorsports section; Mark Taylor, in the portrait and breaking news photography sections; and Chris Hillock, in the junior portfolio and best single picture categories.

Journalist Ben Stanley was also a winner, picking up the junior feature arts award.

He was also a finalist for junior feature writer in crime/justice.

The Waikato Times was also one of the three finalists in one of the premier awards of the night, the best daily newspaper over 30,000 in circulation. The winner was the New Zealand Herald.

The Times won that award in Wellington at last year's awards.

Finalists in the annual media awards, presented at Auckland's Sky City, were announced last month. Other Waikato Times staff to make the finalists' list included Maori affairs reporter Karla Akuhata (junior reporter, human relations), Nicola Boyes and Natalie Akoorie (newspaper story of the year), Tracey Cooper (senior newspaper feature writer, sport) and Dave Leggett (headline writer of the year). Columnist Steve Braunias was also a finalist.

Your Weekend – free in the Saturday edition of the Times – was a finalist in the best newspaper inserted magazine and best magazine cover categories.

Waikato Times acting editor Roy Pilott said that to be a finalist in the best daily newspaper category was an outstanding result and wins for three Times photographers underlined both the quality and consistency of its photography department.

Last month Taylor was named in the Fairfax media team to cover the Commonwealth Games in India later the year.

The overall paper of the year was the Herald On Sunday.

- © Fairfax NZ News