Talk to the Press’ Paisley Gilmour won TWO press awards at the National Association of Press Agencies annual awards!
Last week Talk to the Press attended the NAPAs – the National Association of Press Agencies annual awards – to support our features editor Paisley Gilmour who was up for TWO press awards!
Paisley was nominated for Feature Story of The Year about a stalker victim who called police 120 times before eventually being attacked and stabbed eight times. This story appeared on the front page in the Sunday People under Paisley’s byline.
She was also up for The Kevin Fitzpatrick Award (young reporter of the year) for a story about a woman who decided to end her severely disabled daughter’s life.
Incredibly, she scooped 1st prize in both categories and made the Talk to the Press team very proud!
Paisley has worked at Talk to the Press for nearly two years and during in that time she has broken dozen of front page stories and helped families caught up in high profile cases handle their press attention.
We were thrilled that her hard work and dedication to Talk to the Press paid off and that she was rewarded for all the hours of hard work she’s spent working on your behalf to bring your stories into the public domain.
We had a fab time Friday night – albeit we may have drunk a bit too much prosecco and all woke up with sore heads the following day! We are struggling to find a picture of Paisley where she’s not pulling a silly face with her award!
On the night, radio presenter and former news editor of Sky News Nick Ferrari paid tribute to the ‘crucial’ work of Britain’s independent news agencies. Speaking at the ceremony he said their role remained paramount in a complex media world. He said: “In theory, awards ceremonies are about winners and losers. But there are no losers in this room, only journalists and photographers who are extremely good at what they do.”
“You are the people who every day fill the pages of newspapers and magazines and provide the talking points for broadcasters. I and many others in this industry are hugely appreciative of what you do.”
Nick, now a presenter on LBC, said he was ‘born to be an agency reporter’ and as a schoolboy regularly filed to the nationals on behalf of his father Dan’s Kent-based agency, which still carries the Ferrari name.
The full list of award-winners was as follows:
EXCLUSIVE NEWS/SPORT STORY OF THE YEAR
1st , Heather Skillen, Caters News Agency;
Joint 2nd , Lucy Clarke-Billings, Ferrari Press & Patrick Gysin, Ferrari Press;
3rd Rachel McDermott – Ross Parry Agency
SPEC NEWS/SPORT STORY OF THE YEAR
1st , Will Humphries, Wales News Service;
Joint 2nd , Will Carson, BNPS & Laura Elvin SWNS;
3rd, Kerry Harden – Cavendish Press
FEATURE STORY OF THE YEAR
1st , Paisley Gilmour, Talk to the Press;
2nd , Kim Willis, Phoenix Features;
3rd , Harriet Rose-Gale, SWNS.
KEVIN FITZPATRICK AWARD
1st, Paisley Gilmour, Talk to the Press;
2nd ,Harriet Rose-Gale, SWNS ;
Joint 3rd ,Hannah Stubbs, Caters News Agency & Kristina Beanland, Caters News Agency .
PICTURE OF THE YEAR
1st, Nigel Bowles, John Connors Press Associates;
2nd , Jon Langeland, Solent News;
3rd, Allan Bentley, Cavendish Press.
SPORTS PICTURE OF THE YEAR
1st, Alex Whitehead, Simon Wilkinson Pictures;
2nd, William Cherry, Presseye;
3rd; Colm Lenaghan, Pacemaker Press;