DC Thomson writers recognised for journalism supporting refugees

The P&J’s Lindsay Bruce has been honoured for her work in telling the story of a frontline Ukraine medic reuniting with his wife and baby in Aberdeen after a year apart.

Lindsay won the award for ‘best local media’ coverage at the Refugee Festival Scotland Media Awards this month, which celebrates ‘the exemplary work of journalists in Scotland covering refugee and asylum issues’.  

The piece in The P&J, which featured footage by local videographer Tucker Tangeman, captured the powerful moment Artur Sokol was reunited with his wife Yuliia and baby daughter.  

Lindsay said: “It’s really important to both myself and Tucker that the ongoing stories of war and its displaced people don’t get forgotten. 

“We also wanted to make sure we captured and elevated their voices. We’re both delighted and very proud to have won the local media category and hope their story helps change the narrative on how refugees and asylum seekers are thought about.” 

This is the second time Lindsay has won the award, last year winning the same category for her coverage of another Ukrainian family reuniting in Aberdeen after a long struggle to get them to safety.

Amie Flett from The Courier was named runner-up in the ‘local media’ category this year, for her story about a Dundee University student who spent 14 years in a refugee camp, and Patricia-Ann Young, writing in The Sunday Post was named runner up in the features category for her tale of refugees performing alongside members of the Scottish Opera.  

Sabir Zazai, CEO of the Scottish Refugee Council described this year’s shortlist as ‘an impressive and crucial contribution’ to the dialogue around people seeking protection in the UK. 

He added: “It has never been more important to tell the stories of people seeking sanctuary in a responsible way that puts the people behind the headlines first.” 

DC Thomson brands recognised at 2023 PPA’s and Star Awards

DC Thomson brands have received five nominations across the 2023 PPA Awards and The Marketing Society Star Awards.

This year’s Star Awards theme ‘wildly effective’ recognises ways the industry has changed and celebrates how businesses are evolving in the face of tighter budgets and changing audience landscapes.

DC Thomson has been nominated in the Tourism, Leisure, Culture and Sport category for its campaign with Dundee City Council which saw Dundee transformed into Beanotown for almost a month.

The city welcomed a six-metre high and 38-metre long Hollywood-style Beanotown sign on the Law Hill in Summer 2022 to coincide with Dundee Summer Bash Streets Festival, an event which celebrates the city’s comic and story-telling heritage.

Mike Stirling, Beano’s director of mischief, said: “It was beyond our wildest hopes that we could change the city into Beanotown, but with teamwork across the business and our collaboration with Dundee City Council we were able to prove that Dundee really is the World Capital of Comics.

“The transformation saw 45,000 additional tourists arrive in the city, generating an additional £220k of direct economic benefit. We are delighted this has been recognised at this year’s Marketing Society Star Awards.”

The Press and Journal’s Made for You, Made for Weekends campaign has been recognised in the Marketing, Planning and Insights category. The campaign set out to boost the paper’s Saturday edition in line with understanding changes in reader’s mindsets at the weekend, while implementing a 40p price increase, all during the cost-of-living crisis.

DC Thomson brands have also been recognised in three categories at this year’s 2023 PPA Awards.

Beano Studios is shortlisted for PPA Media Brand of the Year (Consumer Media). The award is for a consumer media brand that has an authoritative voice in their market, produces content their audience wants and informs their communities.

News teams have been recognised in two categories.

The Courier and P&J’s DMP-powered subscriber engagement is nominated for PPA Data Initiative of the Year, an award that recognises a business who can demonstrate excellent use of data to deliver value to their audiences, while the News Subscriptions Team is up for PPA Team of the Year.

Ella Dolphin, DC Thomson’s chief brand officer, said: “I’m delighted to see so many of our brands shortlisted across a range of categories at this year’s PPA Awards and The Marketing Society Star Awards.

“These awards recognise that the publishing industry is an evolving landscape, and for our brands to be nominated across five categories is a testament to the hard work and innovation that our teams put into producing outstanding content every day while pushing boundaries.”

The winners for all categories will be announced in June. The Marketing Society Star Awards will take place on June 15th in Glasgow’s DoubleTree by Hilton Glasgow Central and the PPA Awards are on June 28th at London’s City Central at the HAC.

DC Thomson receives four nominations at the 2023 ACE NMAs

DC Thomson has been shortlisted four times across three categories at the 2023 Newspaper and Magazine Awards (ACE NMAs).

The NMAs give the publishing industry the opportunity to come together, showcase and celebrate the many success stories that have emerged in the last 12 months.

This year sees Puzzler Magazine shortlisted for ‘Newsstand Magazine of the Year – General Interest’.

Puzzler’s head of innovation, Shameem Begg, said: “We are delighted to have our 50-year-old Puzzler mag shortlisted as a finalist in this year’s NMAs. As the UK’s first ever puzzle magazine, it’s wonderful for Puzzler to be recognised and a testament to its quality content that it continues to innovate, entertain and attract new audiences after five whole decades. Congratulations to all the finalists!”  

Both The Press & Journal and Evening Express are shortlisted in a brand-new category, ‘Newspaper Newsstand Campaign of the Year’. This award is for the newspaper that has excelled in engaging with their audience and added genuine value to the market. The Press & Journal has been nominated for its ‘Win a £90,000 Lodge Campaign, while the Evening Express is recognised for ‘The EscapEE’.

The P&J’s campaign saw the £90,000 lodge provided by Riverview Holiday Park draw in thousands of entries and huge attendance at a gala day where the winner was announced for the title’s largest ever giveaway. The winner took ownership of the lodge at the gala and then and was ready to move in that day.

The EscapEE ran in the Evening Express and provided lots of fun and massive interest across our evening title and Original 106 Radio. The competition works as an exciting and unique manhunt, where audiences seek out “The EscapEE” to claim different cash prizes. The main objectives were to encourage readers of the newspaper to also become listeners to the radio station and vice versa.

DC Thomson is nominated for ‘Newsstand Team of the Year’, an award that recognises the team that has demonstrated consistent high performance and delivered great results across campaigns, challenges, initiatives, projects or strategies.

Neil Mackland, head of newspaper sales and marketing, said: “We are delighted to be shortlisted in a number of categories at the NMAs this year. It’s a great achievement to be recognised as a finalist in the ‘Newsstand Team of the Year’. As a small but multitalented team, we feed into various aspects of the business including editorial, advertising, radio, events and production, helping to make numerous projects a reality.  

“We’re up against some stiff competition for ‘Campaign of the Year’ but both the Evening Express and P&J campaigns had massive reader engagement and generated huge revenue for our commercial team. Congratulations to all the nominees and everyone who helped get us nominated!”  

The awards ceremony takes place on May 18th 2023 at the London Marriott Hotel, Grosvenor Square, London.
​​​​​​​
The full shortlist is available here.