Tribune is tops in Media Awards!

The Connacht Tribune is once again among the big winners in this year’s Local Ireland Media Awards, sponsored by the National Lottery.

We came out on top in two categories – Best Designed Front Page for the Connacht Tribune, and Best Advertising Campaign for our series with the Credit Union.

We were also shortlisted in six other categories: News Series of the Year – Dara Bradley for his City Tribune series on Mental Health; News Story of the Year – Stephen Corrigan for his City Tribune feature on Inequality and Educational privilege; Best Use of Photography City Tribune; Best Digital Content; Best Local Advertisement for the Galway Races; and, Best Advertising Campaign for our series with Galway Bay FM.

The pandemic means that this year’s awards ceremony cannot take place, but we took delivery of our trophies and certificates at our new headquarters, 21 Liosban Business Park, recently.

And they will take pride of place in our new offices.

“We were honoured and delighted to be acknowledged in what has been a difficult year for the newspaper business – as indeed it has for so many businesses across the county and the country,” said Tribune editor Dave O’Connell.

“We have always placed great store in our content and design, and we will continue to do that into the future.”

“We will always strive to do the very best for our loyal readers – and it’s particularly gratifying when our own peers see fit to recognize that with these beautiful awards,” he added.

Connacht Tribune Operations Manager Declan McGuire expressed his delight at the fact that three separate local advertising campaigns were honoured.

“Our local advertisers have always been critically important to us – but never more so than now. That’s why we were particularly delighted to win the top prize for our Credit Union campaign, because they have been such greater supporters of ours for so long, and I hope they too see us as great advocates of theirs,” he said.

“Equally, we were proud to be recognised for our campaigns with the Galway Races and with our sister company, Galway Bay FM; all firmly embedded in the Galway landscape, but – like the Tribune – constantly reinventing themselves to remain dynamic and extremely relevant now and into the future,” he added.

And the accolades for the Tribune staff don’t stop there either; our Design Editor Colm McSherry, who is currently completing his Masters in Journalism at NUIG, has been shortlisted in the Student Journalism category of the Mental Health Media Awards, sponsored by Headline Ireland, for a feature he wrote on the transgender community.

Local newspapers are the lifeblood of communities

By Andrew Algeo Chief Executive of the National Lottery

The National Lottery is honoured to sponsor this year’s Local Ireland Media Awards for the third consecutive year which celebrates excellence in local journalism.

Local newspapers, such as the Connacht Tribune, are the lifeblood of communities and hold a very important place in Irish society, providing a vital service that should be cherished and supported.

While it has never been easier for people to access news they still turn to their local newspaper for reliable, trusted information.

The need for such credible information has never been as important as in these challenging times we have found ourselves in this year.

This partnership with Local Ireland is such a natural fit for the National Lottery. Like local newspapers, the National Lottery is embedded in communities all over Ireland through our network of over 5,500 retailers who sell our games.

We are proud of the contribution of the National Lottery to communities through our Good Causes fund.

Nearly 30 cent in every €1 spent on National Lottery games goes back in the areas of Youth, Sports, Recreation, Amenities, Health, Welfare, Arts, Culture, National Heritage and the Irish Language.

Last year alone, €252 million was raised for approximately 4,000 local sports clubs, community organisations and charities across the country.

National Lottery retailers in Ireland benefitted to the tune of almost €51 million in commission. There were €497.5 million in prizes in 2019.

When we look at Galway specifically, where 58,000 people, on average, play National Lottery games every week and all our Galway players won a total sum of €20 million in prizes last year.

There are over 350 retailers in Galway who sell National Lottery games and in excess of €2.6 million was paid to those retailers in commission.

More than 442 such Good Causes projects were supported across Galway in the past two years.

Local media is essential to keeping communities connected and continues to play a major role in both shaping and reflecting the people it serves in every village, parish and town in the country.

Superb journalism and strong advertising win every time!

By David Ryan President, Local Ireland

This has been a year like no other. The Corona 19 virus pandemic has wreaked havoc across the globe. The unprecedented levels of fatalities, sickness and business disruption have not been recorded in living memory.

Yet despite all this misery we continue to function and our country has rallied to face the challenges.

Most would agree that our Government is working hard to alleviate the worst effects of the pandemic and the recent budget gives some confidence on the way forward to restoring life to what it had been pre-pandemic.

Throughout the pandemic local newspapers played a vital role in reporting accurate, trusted news to their readers in every community in the country.

Our titles provided comprehensive news on every aspect of life during the highly stressful spring and summer months through print, online and social media. Every community knew what was going on in their area and could rely on the reportage in their title, a service that our newspapers have provided for generations.

Despite the pandemic we had a tremendous response to this year’s awards scheme and entries in all categories were ahead of last year.

The judging panel was delighted with the quality of the entries and, indeed, struggled in many categories to agree on the shortlist of three entries.

However, agree they did, and it is very pleasing to see the level of excellent quality entries continue to rise.

This year’s panel was chaired by noted journalist and academic, Dr. Jane Suiter, Director of the Institute for Future Media (FuJo) and Associate Professor in the School of Communications, DCU.

Other judges included Michael Foley, Professor Emeritus, TU Dublin, PJ Cunningham, Journalist and Author; Valerie Cox, Broadcaster and former RTE reporter; Frank Miller, former Irish Times pictures editor, Dr. Dawn Wheatley, School of Communications, DCU and Andrew Sinclair, former Deputy Managing Director, OMD.

This awards scheme would not have been possible without the valued sponsorship of the National Lottery.

We have enjoyed a wonderful working relationship over the past three years and look forward to working together in the future.

Local newspapers and National Lottery are a great fit. We both serve every community in the 26 counties and the money provided through the Good Causes programme has left a lasting legacy in our communities.

I wish to thank all those who participated in this year’s awards scheme and congratulate the winners and the short listed entries.