Top tips for entering the Scottish Press Awards
*NEW - SUPPORT TO ENTER PRESS AWARDS*
We are pleased to announce WIJ Scotland will support 20 paid entry fees for members who want to enter this year’s Scottish Press Awards. These will be allocated on a lottery basis. To apply, please send an email with a note of your entries to wijscotland@gmail.com and we will respond to successful applicants with details for payment.
Women in Journalism Scotland is once again encouraging as many women journalists to enter the Scottish Press Awards.
In past years, there have been many more men shortlisted than women. Hundreds of talented women journalists working across Scotland should be recognised for their work but often don’t put themselves forward for these types of awards.
This year’s awards includes several new categories: Specialist Reporter, Student Journalist, Food and Drink Writer, Travel Writer, Best Coverage of a Live Event, News Website, Daily Newspaper of the Year, Sunday Newspaper of the Year and Chairman’s Award.
There is also the Nicola Barry Award, which is open to all women journalists of any age working in print and online media in Scotland deserving of recognition for their work in issue-led reportage or commentary.
The Nicola Barry Award was launched by Women in Journalism in Scotland in 2017 with the twin aims of encouraging and emulating the campaigning journalism in which the late Nicola Barry specialised.
Nicola Barry was one of Scotland’s most successful and best known journalists and authors, driven by a passion to help the underdog and to give a voice to those who had none. She died in January 2017 at the age of 66.
The first winner of the award was Dani Garavelli in 2018, followed by Karin Goodwin in 2019 and Gina Davidson in 2020.
Women in Journalism Scotland co-chair, Jan Patience said: "We started up this award to recognise the incredible campaigning work carried out by many women journalists, often in their own time as editorial budgets grow every smaller.
"Nicola Barry was a giant of Scottish journalism who was always very encouraging to young women entering the business. I feel pretty sure that she would be telling women journalists across Scotland to buckle up and enter the Scottish Press Awards in whichever category they feel is right for their own work, including the one named after her!"
The Scottish Press Awards are open for entries now and with the deadline of 12 noon on Wednesday 3rd March fast approaching, we asked former judge Janette Harkess to share some of her top tips:
1. Substance trumps style every time
Choose your strongest stories. It’s an unwritten law of the universe that what you consider to be your best work in any given year may not have the layout or the projection you’d hoped for. That doesn’t matter and the judges will look beyond that. Powerful story-telling, incisive comment or game-changing investigation will impress, however presented on the page or online.
2. Tell it/sell it your way
Use the opportunity available to you to add your own short explanation of the content you’ve submitted. It’s often really helpful for the judges to understand a little more of the background or context to a piece of work and why they should consider it distinctive or exceptional. It can be particularly useful, for example, with regard to local stories, timelines or specialists areas where you can really help the judges understand why your work had impact when it did and how important that was. And don’t think because your work is local that it won’t stand up against the national stories. Strong impactful journalism is strong impactful journalism on whatever landscape or platform it’s published.
3. Just do it
Enter. I know that’s probably the least rocket science aspect of all so far but there is no point in simply muttering about the same old people winning if you don’t take part. Have confidence in your own work and get it out there. And good luck!
Full details of the Scottish Press Awards can be found on the website at http://www.scotns.org.uk/awards/
The shortlist will be announced at the end of May and the winners and runners up will be revealed a ceremony at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel in Glasgow on Wednesday, 22nd September 2021, subject to Covid restrictions.