Island Echo has been highly commended for a prestigious national industry award as part of newsawards 2020.
The Newspaper Awards were established in 1997 and rebranded as newsawards in 2015. They are the only such awards dedicated to celebrating the best in news media print, technology and business innovation across the country.
Although the glitz and glam ceremony in London was cancelled in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the winners and runners up in 6 categories have now been announced.
Island Echo has received a ‘highly commended’ for the ICNN Independent Community Website of the Year award, sponsored by Google News Initiative. This award is new for 2020 and comes as part of a partnership with the ever-growing Independent Community News Network.
Judges said of Island Echo:
“A very successful site with great ambition and growth plans. Investment in innovation is clearly paying off”.
The title was scooped by Birmingham Updates, who are noted for having short and snappy stories with smart revenue generation.
Darren Toogood, Editor and Publisher of Island Echo, says:
“To receive a high commendation in a national awards competition is absolutely fantastic and I am thrilled that the judges rated Island Echo so highly.
“We have been publishing Isle of Wight news for over 8 years now but the most challenging time has come in the past 3 months or so. The coronavirus pandemic has been incredibly draining but also rewarding, with new visitor number records being set and more news than ever before being published. To receive such positive news during this time of uncertainty is a real boost.
“Congratulations to Birmingham Updates for their win – it’s well deserved!”
This commendation comes just 8 months after Island Echo was crowned the IW Chamber Micro Business of the Year 2019.
There are over 300 independent community news publications in the UK and Ireland. The majority of these titles, including Island Echo, are run by individuals or small teams producing news content of important community value.
A full list of winners can be found at https://www.newsawards.co.uk/winners/.
So you should be
Great news coverage
Great news for the Echo. Love the fact that people can express their views on up to the minute local news.
Only negative is overly censored as we are living in too PC times now.
Really think that you have done a marvellous job getting Island wide news so quickly, in difficult times. Well done all.
Great news for you, i’m fairly new to viewing you online.
Keep up the good news reporting, but please can you do more research into some of the stories?
Good on you Darren, in my opinion the best source for Island news
The first thing in morning to check Island Echo, keep up good work and reporting what effects normal people. Well done
Thanks Bob. We have always aimed to be ‘for the Island, by the Island’ and hopefully that shows. A lot of the media come from wealthy backgrounds and move to different parts of the country having attended university – but I’m just a ‘normal’ Islander providing a service for the local community. A true caulkhead!
Yes, well deserved. I like that we are able to express our opinions.
Shame the information and grammar is always incorrect, always rushing to beat the county press before getting the full story..otherwise it would be a great media source
I think that is a slightly unfair judgement to say that our information is *always* incorrect. I accept that, sometimes, when a story is breaking (and time is of the essence), there will be the odd mistake here and there. However, on the whole our stories are factual, well presented and almost always beat the competition.
Glad to see your reply, even my fingers go faster than my brain at times, so good to see that you say you do make the odd mistake, makes you more human. 🙂