Stuff recognised for digital prowess at Voyager Awards

Stuff has been recognised as New Zealand’s best digital news site at the Voyager Media Awards,
building on its number one audience position as the largest news site in the country.

At last Friday night’s celebration of journalism held amid a tumultuous year for the industry, Stuff Group won most of the highly competitive digital categories, including Digital News Provider of the Year, Video Journalist of the Year and Editorial leader of the Year for Tracy Watkins, editor of The Post and the Sunday Star Times, which launched digital subscriptions last year.

The Digital News Provider category takes in both website and app, which Stuff.co.nz won last year.

Judges said: “Stuff’s innovative approaches to reaching new audiences across different platforms, with a special focus on live and mobile, set it apart from the competition.”

Of Watkins’ role leading two national titles they said she had “shown exceptional leadership… the result has been that the audience for the Post has grown dramatically and it has established itself as a powerful voice in the Capital and beyond”.

Lawrence Smith, one of several national Stuff video journalists to win at the awards, was Video Journalist of the Year.

Newshub’s Alexa Cook was News Journalist of the Year and a team from RNZ including host Guyon Espiner won Best Innovation in Digital Storytelling.

NZME took out a number of newspaper awards including Newspaper of the Year for Hawkes Bay Today with the New Zealand Herald winning Metropolitan Newspaper of the Year and Weekend Newspaper of the Year.

Stuff Group’s Sunday magazine won Best Newspaper Magazine. Best photographer was won by the Herald’s Michael Craig.

Shuttered consumer affairs show Fair Go was also recognised, collecting an award for Best Editorial Campaign or Project. Newshub’s Paddy Gower Has Issues, won Best Current Affairs (short), while rivals TVNZ won Best Current Affairs or Documentary by John Campbell, Andrew Dalton and Dallas Smith.

Stuff’s Brand Connections Managing Director Matt Headland congratulated all media organisations in continuing to produce excellent work and attracting large audiences even in a challenging time for the industry.

“This year Stuff has replatformed, launched new vertical video and audio products, partnered with other major media organisations and now won a slew of digital awards. That’s no mean feat in a year where our industry is facing some headwinds.

“I’m thrilled too for our commercial partners, the people who support our journalism day in, day out, and make a real difference to media in Aotearoa. We couldn’t exist without that support.”

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