{"id":439917,"date":"2026-05-22T11:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T11:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/439917\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T11:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T11:17:08","slug":"nzme-celebrates-multiple-top-honours-at-2026-nz-media-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/439917\/","title":{"rendered":"NZME celebrates multiple top honours at 2026 NZ Media Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Herald\u2019s premium print experience also received praise, recognised as the only outlet to excel across both of the biggest stories of 2025 – the death of Tom Phillips<\/a> and the Jevon McSkimming police scandal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Rotorua Daily Post was awarded Newspaper of the Year and Regional Newspaper of the Year. Judges praised the paper as a \u201cshining example of a paper using limited resources for fine results in difficult times\u201d. <\/p>\n

Judges noted its enormous reach and engagement in the community and said its news writing \u201cdoesn\u2019t just speak to the issues affecting the community, it sings\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Herald journalist Jared Savage<\/a> won Best Investigation for his reporting of the McSkimming scandal.<\/p>\n

Savage and other reporters\u2019 dogged fight to get suppression orders lifted<\/a> against the former Deputy Police Commissioner meant the public could know the full scale of failings inside Police<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"JaredJared Savage. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, NZME\u2019s managing editor – multimedia content, Sarah Bristow, was named Editorial Leader of the Year.<\/p>\n

She was recognised for the 2025 launch of NZME\u2019s weekday live news show, Herald NOW (now called Ryan Bridge TODAY<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Judges commented on her contribution in delivering a far-reaching and impactful piece of work requiring a major cultural shift, new ways of working, new technology, new skills, and an ambitious editorial and commercial strategy. <\/p>\n

The Herald NOW video team was also recognised as runner-up in Best Innovation in Digital Storytelling.<\/p>\n

Bristow has since launched another show, Herald NOW Business.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"SarahSarah Bristow. Photo \/ Warner Bros. Discovery<\/p>\n

Herald investigative reporter Matt Nippert<\/a> took home Business Journalist of the Year and received a $5000 Brian Gaynor Initiatives cash prize.<\/p>\n

\"MattMatt Nippert. Photo \/ Babiche Martens<\/p>\n

Eva de Jong<\/a> won Best Up and Coming Feature Writer and former Herald journalist Benjamin Plummer<\/a> was named Sports Journalist of the Year.<\/p>\n

\"EvaEva de Jong. Credit \/ NZME\"BenjaminBenjamin Plummer. Credit \/ NZME<\/p>\n

Murray Kirkness, NZME editor-in-chief, said it was a proud night for NZME. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor the Rotorua Daily Post to take out two major awards, the Herald to win Metropolitan Newspaper of the Year, for Sarah to win Editorial Leader and to see our individual journalists recognised across several categories – that\u2019s a real statement. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud of the quality journalism we produce across our platforms and tonight is a special celebration of that, alongside our industry peers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt Wilson, NZME Chief Publishing Officer, added: \u201cCreating award-winning newspapers is a team effort that spans our newsrooms right through to our printing, customer service and delivery networks nationwide. It was fantastic to hear the judges\u2019 comments on the premium print experience of the NZ Herald – I\u2019m proud of what our teams produce and deliver day in, day out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Boggs, NZME CEO said the Herald and NZME\u2019s other news platforms have an important role to play as the place Kiwis turn to when they need news worth knowing. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re living in a time when there\u2019s more content available than ever before, and our own research shows people are working harder than ever to figure out fact from disinformation. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re committed to being a trusted source, backed by a business that continually innovates without compromising on quality journalism, and it\u2019s great to have that recognised with our award wins tonight. Congrats to all other finalists and winners – tonight was another wonderful celebration of the talent across our industry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Herald\u2019s premium print experience also received praise, recognised as the only outlet to excel across both of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2246,1975,10779,9632,6928,10712,1887,61463,7560,88972,1073,2510,111,43,35966,139,69,26263,5911,3010,6202,102],"class_list":["post-439917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-2246","tag-at","tag-awards","tag-celebrates","tag-celebrating","tag-claiming","tag-countrys","tag-flagship","tag-honours","tag-journalists","tag-media","tag-multiple","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newspapers","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-nzme","tag-tonight","tag-top","tag-wins","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}