Winners announced at the Newspress Awards: Auto Express Columnist Mike Rutherford receives Lifetime Achievement Award during the ceremony at Bicester Heritage

Twenty-two winners from automotive journalism and PR were announced at the sixth Newspress Awards at Bicester Heritage last night.

The awards ceremony at the Oxfordshire automotive campus was hosted by National Lottery voice man Alan Dedicoat, who makes his return to the Newspress Awards after a two-year absence.

This year the event followed Newspress LIVE!, which featured an eclectic display of vehicles from car makers as well as those in the Footman James Classic Arena, where journalists and PRs were given the opportunity to showcase their cars. They were vying for the Footman James Star Car Award – a new award, which was won by Alex Grant for his VW Polo.

The coveted prizes of Editor of the Year and PR of the Year were won by Top Gear magazine’s editor Jack Rix and Genesis’ Simon Branney, respectively.

Rounding off the evening was the presentation for the Lifetime Achievement Award, which went to former Auto Express columnist Mike Rutherford.

Other honours on the night included Automotive Consumer Publication award, which went to Auto Express, while in the hotly contested Automotive Feature Writer category Rowan Horncastle came out on top.

In the PR awards, which are determined by votes from Newspress subscribers, Kia won best Press Office award while Rising PR Award went to Milissa Ordona.

Part of the evening was dedicated to recognising up-and-coming writers. In the Rising Star (Journalist) category, Ellis Hyde came out on top.

The Daily Mail’s Ray Massey took the Automotive News Writer award, while the new EV Writer category was secured by Richard Ingram.

James Taylor was awarded the Road Tester of the Year prize and Erin Baker bagged the Automotive Consumer Journalist award.

The Car Expert made its debut in the Newspress Awards and took the Automotive Website award, while CAR won the Automotive Video award.

Mark Smyth won both the Automotive Business Journalist award and Automotive Technology Journalist Award and Fleet World took the Automotive Business Publication award. Another newcomer to the awards, Charlotte Vowden, took the Classic Car Writer award.

The Commercial Vehicle Writer Award went to George Barrow and the Automotive Technology Publication Award was won by Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Technology International.

Finally, Nick Williams collected top honours for the Automotive Photographer category.

Newspress’ Managing Director, Tim Barfoot, said: “Congratulations to all the winners and many thanks to our judging panel who had a tough job because the standard was extraordinarily high. We would also like to thank our sponsors who supported this fantastic event.”

The full list of winners appears below:

Main Image: Auto Express columnist Mike Rutherford receives Lifetime Achievement award