North East Awards To Recognise Web Success

Newspapers in the north east are competing for the first time for the title of website of the year as part of England’s largest regional press honours event.

Web editors on Tyneside, Teesside and Wearside will be battling against one another to scoop the inaugural North East News Website of the Year from the Cordner Awards.

Held in memory of former Hartlepool Mail news editor Tom Cordner, the awards entered their 30th year in 2008 and organisers have chosen to commemorate the occasion with the creation of the new prize for digital news.

“Not before time, the Cordners have opened a new category to compare and reward online journalism”, said John Bailey, co-founder of the awards.

He added: “In Tom Cordner’s day the idea of news pages on computer screens was the stuff of sci-fi.

“But rely on it, Tom would have been absorbed by cyberspace - so creation of a new award is fitting.”

The winner of the first website award will be unveiled on May 24 at a ceremony in Newcastle.