NZME Celebrates Success At 2023 Voyager Media Awards

New Zealand Media and Entertainment is once again celebrating big wins at this evening’s Voyager Media Awards, taking home an array of awards recognising outstanding journalism and digital flair from the NZ Herald and BusinessDesk.

Three supreme awards were picked up by NZ Herald - News Website of the Year (for an unprecedented fourth consecutive year), Voyager Newspaper of the Year and Metropolitan Newspaper of the Year.

Judges praised the Herald’s agenda-setting watchdog journalism and great use of video and clear navigation across its digital site. Judges also said “the New Zealand Herald provides a confident model of boldly-displayed, high-quality journalism. By highlighting the human face of important issues, this newspaper creates a real connection with the readers and country it serves.”

NZME also celebrated individual wins including Nicholas Jones - Best Individual Investigation, Vaimoana Mase - Best Opinion Writing, BusinessDesk’s Oliver Lewis - Best Reporting Local Government, and Audrey Young – Political Journalist of the Year. Young’s portfolio was referred to as a masterclass in political journalism by the judges and highlighted her impactful interview with Louisa Wall and her insightful analysis of the Peter Ellis Supreme Court Case.

NZME Acting Managing Editor, Murray Kirkness, commended NZME’s newsrooms, saying tonight’s victories reflected the business’s immense talent, commitment and effort.

“The breadth of awards won, recognising both our individual talent and collective teamwork, speaks volumes about the calibre of people not only in our newsrooms but across the wider NZME team throughout the country.

“To have won Best News Website for four consecutive years is incredible and an amazing achievement. And it’s a huge accolade to see our daily newspaper celebrated as Voyager Newspaper of the Year, recognising the connection it generates with its readers. I’m really proud of what our teams have achieved tonight,” says Kirkness.

NZME’s other individual awards were: Alex Spence - Best Social Issues Feature Writer, Nicholas Jones - Best Social Issues Reporter and Jamie Morton - Best Science Reporter. The Herald’s Thomas Bywater was awarded the Gordon McLauchlan Travel Journalism Award, praising his unique voice across a range of medias. In addition, Steven Holloway and Seamus Marten took home Best Original Ongoing Podcast for their Between Two Beers podcast.

NZME CEO Michael Boggs says he’s proud of the team. “Our journalists work extremely hard every day to keep Kiwis in the know, continually striving to provide the best quality news and journalism for our audiences. It’s excellent to see their results recognised in these awards tonight. It’s also great to see NZME’s focus on digital transformation being recognised once again - winning Website of the Year for the fourth year running demonstrates the huge effort across the business to create a best in market digital product,” he says.

Boggs also paid tribute to previous NZME Managing Editor Shayne Currie, who recently moved into a new role as NZME Editor at Large. “Over the past seven years Shayne has led a high-performing, award-winning team and has done a fantastic job in driving digital transformation and integration across NZME’s platforms. His contribution to NZME has been and continues to be invaluable,” says Boggs.

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