Gerard Gough, the sub-editor of the Scottish Catholic Observer, was recently nominated for a top national journalism award in London.
Mr Gough, who has been in his role since 2008 at The Catholic Herald’s sister publication in Scotland, made the final five shortlisted nominees in the National Union of Journalists’ Regional Press Awards 2010 in the Designer of the Year category.
The awards ceremony was held at Dingwall’s club in Camden on Tuesday June 29.
The event featured a host of journalistic talent from throughout Britain, all of whom were hoping to receive special recognition from their fellow journalists for their contribution to regional journalism, in both print and online categories.
Mr Gough was delighted to have been nominated for the award. “It’s an honour to be nominated for the award by my fellow journalists,” said Mr Gough. “A lot of the work that sub-editors do is often unseen or cached in the background of an newspaper office so it’s really great to have your work and skills recognised in such an overt and prestigious way.
“It also shines a light on the excellent work done by everyone who works for faith-based publications, in a media environment where their message doesn’t always manage to pervade an increasingly secular society.”
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) stepped in to resurrect the Regional Press Awards after previous organiser, the Wilmington Group, announced that it would not be holding the awards.
The former publisher of the Press Gazette had retained the rights to the trade magazine’s events when it was sold last year to Mike Danson, the New Statesman’s owner. The NUJ said it would be hosting the awards this year as part of its Stand Up for Journalism initiative.
Jeremy Dear, the general secretary of the NUJ, said: “At a time when newspaper groups bemoan the profitability of the industry and cuts in staffing and budgets threaten quality journalism, we are proud to celebrate inspiring local and regional newspaper journalism. We were blown away by the outstanding quality of the entries, across all categories.
“In fact, one of the tragedies of the judging process is that there were several outstanding entries that failed to make the shortlist in their respective categories, as the standard of entries was so high.”
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