The highly coveted Scottish Press Awards is returning for its 46th year, with entry open from Monday, January 6, 2025.
Back by popular demand is the separate Interviewer of the Year category, and a new sports journalist award has been created to amalgamate the sports news and features categories.
New judging guidelines will be introduced for Newsbrand of the Year and Weekly Newsbrand of the Year categories to emphasise the importance of multi-platform publishing under a title’s brand in modern news operations.
Overseen by Newsbrands Scotland (formerly the Scottish Newspaper Society), entry opens on January 6, 2025, with the awards ceremony taking place on Thursday, May 22.
Newsbrands Scotland director John McLellan said: “The awards are very much about brilliant story-telling stories and big scoops, but news publishing is a sophisticated, multi-media operation which reaches huge audiences on mobile devices and the awards need to reflect changes in the way readers are served.”
This full list of categories for 2025 is:
· Arts and Entertainment Journalist of the Year
· Best Coverage of a Live Event
· Campaign of the Year
· Columnist of the Year
· Feature Writer of the Year
· Financial/Business Journalist of the Year
· Food and Drink Writer of the Year
· Front Page of the Year
· Interviewer of the Year
· Journalism Team of the Year
· Lifetime Achievement Award (not applicable for entry, chosen by the editors’ committee)
· News photographer of the Year
· Nicola Barry Award
· Podcast of the Year
· Political Journalist of the Year
· Regional Journalist of the Year
· Reporter of the Year
· Scoop of the Year
· Specialist Reporter of the Year
· Sports Columnist of the Year
· Sports Journalist of the Year
· Sports Photographer of the Year
· Young Journalist of the Year
· Weekly Journalist of the Year
· Weekly Newsbrand of the Year
· Scottish Newsbrand of the Year
· Journalist of the Year (not applicable for entry, chosen by the judges)
This year’s judging panel will once again be led by Richard Neville, former Head of News Brands at DC Thomson and current Director of Neville Robertson Communications.
John McLellan added: “2024 was a momentous year for Scottish and UK politics, and I’m sure our finalists and winners will reflect the very best of the many brilliant stories which kept the public informed throughout.”
The 46th Scottish Press Awards are sponsored by, Diageo, VisitScotland, Openreach, The Glenmorangie Company Ltd, The Law Society of Scotland, Caledonian MacBrayne, Muckle Media, Royal Bank of Scotland, Weber Shandwick, Women in Journalism Scotland, Media House International, Event Consultants Scotland and Newsbrands Scotland.
The awards ceremony and dinner will take place at the DoubleTree by Hilton Glasgow Central on May 22, 2025.