The 2020 Newspress Awards have come to a close and, although we did it virtually, last week was a real celebration of the best of the best in automotive journalism and PR.
And none more so than the Lifetime Achievement Award which went to AA President Edmund King, who has had stellar career in automotive communications and continues to be the voice for the UK’s motoring public.
There were other successes worth noting. David Lillywhite effectively took a ‘triple crown’ securing awards for Classic Car Writer, Automotive Editor and Automotive Consumer Publication, which went to Magneto – a magazine that David edits.
There were also a brace of double winners: Rebecca Leppard, who runs Eventageous PR, took both the Event of the Year Award as well as the PR of the Year Award, while Alex Grant came out top in the Business Journalist and Technology Writer awards.
The Kia press office was celebrating also, taking the Press Office of the Year Award while one of its team, Lauren Martin, celebrated victory in the Rising PR star category.
Three new categories were introduced, this year: Technology Writer, Technology Publication and Automotive Influencer. The winners were selected by an expert panel of judges while three categories, however, were vote only: Automotive Press Office, Automotive PR and Rising PR Star. For all three categories, those with the most votes were the winners.
We were delighted with the response this year and not only with the quantity of entries but the quality too. Of course, in each category there can only be one winner, but it’s fair to say that the judges had a tough time on their hands thanks to the abundance of quality demonstrated by all those who took the time to enter.
Of course, it was a disappointment that we were unable to hold an event this year, but we plan to be back even stronger in 2021 and are already making preparations.
Newspress Managing Director, Tim Barfoot, said:
“Congratulations to all the winners and a big thank you to everyone who took the time to enter. For us, it is no surprise that the quality was so high: ever since we launched the Newspress Awards in 2016 the standard has been very high, and we expect that to continue for next year’s awards. Next time we hope the circumstances will be somewhat different, and we can celebrate as we usually do with a gala dinner.
“We would also like to thank our headline sponsor MotorEasy for their continued support, and all the sponsors involved in this year’s awards.”
Tim Barfoot, Managing Director, Newspress
The full list of winners is as follows:
- Automotive Influencer of the Year – Sponsored by JATO – Harry Metcalfe
- Automotive Event of the Year – Eventageous PR
- Automotive Video of the Year – Top Gear magazine
- Automotive Photographer of the Year – Jonathan Pearce
- Automotive Business Writer of the Year – Alex Grant
- Automotive Business Publication of the Year – AM Magazine
- Automotive Technical Writer of the Year – Alex Grant
- Automotive Technical Publication of the Year – eVisions and automotiveev.com
- Commercial Vehicle Writer of the Year – Sponsored by VW Commercial Vehicles – Brian Weatherley
- Road Tester of the Year – Sponsored by KIA – James Taylor
- Automotive Columnist of the Year – Ben Oliver
- Motorsport Writer of the Year – Jason Craig
- Classic Car Writer of the Year – David Lillywhite
- Automotive Feature Writer of the Year – Rowan Horncastle
- Rising Star – Journalist – Sponsored by Suzuki – Ben Custard
- Rising PR Star – Lauren Martin (KIA)
- Automotive Website of the Year – Carwow
- Automotive Consumer Journalist of the Year – Hugo Griffiths
- Automotive News Journalist of the Year – Jack Carfrae
- Automotive Publication of the Year – Magneto
- Automotive Editor of the Year – David Lillywhite
- Automotive Press Office of the Year – KIA
- Automotive PR of the Year – Rebecca Leppard, Eventageous PR
- Lifetime Achievement Award – Edmund King
Newspress 2020 Awards Judging Panel
Graham Hope – Freelance journalist and former Editor of Auto Express and Carbuyer
Leo Wilkinson – Freelance editor/writer, formerly of What Car?, Telegraph Motoring and MSN Cars
Lindsey Columbell – PR Consultant and CIPR Council member
Quentin Willson – Classic Car Guru (and former Top Gear presenter)
Anthony Rowlinson – Former Editor of Autosport and F1 Racing magazine
John Kendall – PR consultant, freelance automotive journalist
Trevor Adams – Daily Mail photographer and owner of Matrix Media Group
John Nolan – Former Executive Producer at North One Television
