| NEWS Associates trainees have dominated this year’s NCTJ Awards for Excellence in Journalism.
WINNER: Former News Associates trainee Emily Koch, now Bristol Evening Post, won the Feature Writer of the Year prize at the NCTJ Journalism Awards. She is pictured with Helen Boaden, BBC director of news. See pictures of all our winners here.
Three former trainees won prizes at the prestigious event, which was held during the Society of Editors’ conference in Essex.
Emily Koch (London, Fast Track, September 2007) won the trainee feature writer of the year award for her work on the Evening Post in Bristol.
Her portfolio included an interview with the grandmother of a six-year-old boy who was murdered by his dad, who then killed himself after burning his house down and feature with a 74-year-old homeless Italian woman living on the streets in Bristol.
George Scott (London, Fast Track, March 2009) won the student sports journalist of the year prize for a series of agenda-setting off-diary stories on the Olympic Games, which were widely followed up by a series of national newspapers.
David Jordan (London, Fast Track, March 2008) won the trainee sports journalist prize for his work on the Grimsby Telegraph sports desk.
In addition, Louise Robertson (London, Part-time, January 2008) was shortlisted for the news journalist award while Tom Chick (Manchester, Fast Track, March 2009) and Nick Hartwell (London, Fast Track, March 2009) were shortlisted in the sports writer category.
Kim Fletcher, NCTJ chairman, said: "Journalism is undergoing a period of dramatic change where skills needed to work in print, broadcast and online news delivery are converging.
"Students now need to know how to work across all platforms to stand out from the crowd and the need for excellence is greater than ever.
"The winners of these awards have demonstrated this value of excellence which has always been at the heart of the NCTJ."
At last year’s NCTJ Awards Steve Jones (Manchester, Fast Track, March 2008) won the sports writer award while earlier this year, Jo Carter (London, Fast Track, September 2008) claimed the top national shorthand prize for submitting a flawless 120-word transcript.
"Our trainees continue to set high standards - not just in the classroom, where our exam results are unrivaled, but also out their in their respective newsrooms," said Managing Editor James Toney.
"We are tremendously proud of their achievements and confident those coming through our training schemes presently will rise to the challenge they've been set."
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