WELLS Voice was Commended in the Hyperlocal Newspaper of the Year category in the 2024 Newspaper Awards.
The winners and runners-up of the 13 different categories were announced at a black-tie ceremony at the Hilton London Bankside on March 26.
The judges said of Wells Voice: “A brilliant publication, especially considering it’s put together by one person. It has all the design and content of a punchy local newspaper, in a compact hyperlocal format.”
Winner of the hyperlocal category for the second year in succession was London publication The Peckham Peculiar. The Edinburgh Reporter was Highly Commended, and the other Commended titles from around the UK and Ireland were Hackney Citizen, The Bristol Cable and The West Dorset Magazine.
An awards booklet given out to the more than 300 people who attended the ceremony said of the hyperlocals: “The quality and quantity of entry in this category shows just how much audiences want real local knowledge from local news outlets in an easy-to-read printed format. They want newspapers that they can really trust, delivering precisely targeted news content.
“With many areas now being underserved by more traditional newspapers, hyperlocals play an increasingly important role in their local communities. To succeed, hyperlocal community newspapers have to be tenacious and innovative and are looking to constantly evolve.
“The category received entries from all corners of the country and the judges were impressed with the high quality of some titles that rivalled more traditional, long-established weeklies.”
Among the other winners of awards were i (National Newspaper of the Year), FT Weekend (Weekend Newspaper of the Year) and The Guardian for its Saturday magazine (National Supplement/Magazine of the Year – weekly).