The 2023 Newspress Awards have come to a close and it has been a real celebration of PR and journalism excellence.
We are especially delighted to announce the winner of the Newspress Lifetime Achievement Award, Ray Massey, Motoring Editor of the Daily Mail. The thing with ‘Lifetime’ awards is they tend to go to people who are putting their feet up and looking towards retirement. Not so with Ray – he’s still cranking out story after story, trying to get the bottom of things and championing the consumer (he also scooped the Consumer Journalist award this year, too). He’s not about to put his feet up soon, it seems.
There were other successes worth noting. The Intercooler got a worthy double with awards for Automotive Website and Automotive Consumer Publication: we can see the commitment to great writing and entertaining and informative content here.
Another winner is David Twohig, who took the prize for Technology Writer. It was the first time he has entered, and it seems he has started off with a bang. Kia once again took Press Office of the Year, but Kerry Sainsbury of Toyota – another new entry to the Newspress Awards – strolled off with PR of the Year, while the Rising PR Star award went to Tamara Better at Nissan. Congratulations to them both.
Yousuf Ashraf, another first-timer to the Newspress Awards, scooped the Rising Star award for journalism sponsored by Suzuki, and Paul Horrell fought off tough competition in the Road Tester category, sponsored by Kia.
Other notables were George Barrow, who secured the CV Writer award, sponsored by Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, and Charlotte Vowden, for the second year in a row, marched off with the Classic Car Writer award, sponsored by Footman James.
We were delighted with the response this year, and judging was particularly tough because of the high quality of entries. We know that it takes time and effort to put together decent submissions, but we want to thank you, the automotive media, for taking the trouble to enter. The competition is always tough, and those who have secured awards this year, must be secure in the knowledge that this is no cake walk – you have to be right on top of your game to win a Newspress Award.
A special black and gold commemorative trophy celebrating Newspress’ 50th Anniversary will be sent to all award winners.
Newspress Managing Director, Tim Barfoot, said: “We continue to be astounded by the high quality of entries and the commitment to the awards. Every year, hundreds of automotive journalists enter and that, for us, is pretty humbling. So, congratulations to all the winners.
“We would like to thank our sponsors, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Kia, Suzuki and Footman James who help to make all this possible.
“And lastly, I would like to thank our committed panel of judges: Graham Hope, Amanda Stretton, Andrea Baker, John Kendall, Denis Chick, John Nolan and Trevor Adams. It’s a lot of work going through the entries, and we really couldn’t do it without them.”
The full list of winners is as follows:
- Commercial Vehicle Writer, sponsored by Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles – George Barrow
- Automotive Business Journalist – Richard Aucock
- Classic Car Writer, sponsored by Footman James – Charlotte Vowden
- Automotive News Journalist – Jack Carfrae
- Automotive Business Publication – Auto Retail Profit
- Automotive Consumer Journalist – Ray Massey
- Automotive Feature Writer – Andrew Charman
- Automotive Photographer – Jayson Fong
- Automotive Video – Electroheads
- Automotive Rising Star (Journalist), sponsored by Suzuki – Yousuf Ashraf
- Road Tester, sponsored by Kia – Paul Horrell
- Automotive Technology Writer – David Twohig
- Automotive Website – The Intercooler
- EV Writer – Alex Robbins
- Rising PR Star – Tamara Better (Nissan)
- Automotive Press Office – Kia
- Automotive Consumer Publication – The Intercooler
- Automotive PR – Kerry Sainsbury (Toyota)
- Automotive Editor – Vijay Pattni
- Lifetime Achievement Award – Ray Massey
