JP Holds Inaugural NI Awards

The first Northern Ireland Division Awards staged by Johnston Press have recognised several titles for their digital innovations.

Ulster Star took the prize for best multimedia campaign with the Ballymena Times highly commended by the judging panel for its multi-platform storytelling strategies this year.

The News Letter scooped several honours with the award for Digital Centre of the Year and sharing the title of Best Newspaper with the Derry Journal.

Ballymena and Antrim Times editor Des Blackadder, who also took home the award for Best Total Audience Performance, said: “Anyone with an eye on media trends will have witnessed the growth of online and digi-media and I am very conscious of how enthusiastically and skillfully my staff in Ballymena and Antrim have adapted to the radical changes which are sweeping the news media.

“We are now providing a service which has been praised by the leading experts in new media and this has been reflected in the hit statistics on our website which is now firmly established as a leader in the field in weekly newspaper terms.”

In the past year, we have also conducted a successful re-launch of the Times titles and more improvements are on the horizon.”

Further details can be seen at the Antrim Times and a full list of winners can be found at holdthefrontpage.co.uk.