Star shines bright
Family effort: Michael Giles of the South Gippsland Sentinel Times, with Helen Bowering and Tony Giles of The Star and The Yarram Standard. The siblings are pictured displaying their newspapers’ trophies.
THE Star shone brightly at the 2012 Victorian Country Press Association (VCPA) annual awards presentation in Geelong on Friday night.
The newspaper won the TAC Award for Local Reporting for its yearlong coverage of the Leongatha Secondary School’s centenary celebrations in the section circulation 3000 to 10,000.
The judge Lisa Waller, a lecturer in journalism at Deakin University said, “This series, which ran for a year in the lead-up to the event, has a fascinating human interest dimension representing the whole community through its focus on people who have attended the school in the past and those there now.
“It explores the past and writes some new history for the community. It’s positive, interesting , vibrant coverage that is integral to the celebrations and reminds us that newspapers are the first draft of history and also have a role in remembering the past on behalf of communities.”
The Star managers Helen Bowering and Tony Giles were thrilled to accept the prestigious award last Friday at the presentation dinner at the Pier Restaurant in Geelong, on behalf of The Star editor Brad Lester and the editorial team.
Commenting after the awards, Mrs Bowering said it was a thrill to have won another state award for The Star, and she congratulated the talented editorial team and all the staff at The Star.
“It is lovely to bring home a state award for one of the town’s greatest events of the year-the Leongatha Secondary College 100 years celebration,” she said.
“This award is recognition for The Star and the Leongatha Secondary College centenary committee that gave some 4000 people a wonderful weekend of celebrations and kicked off the next chapter of history for a very proud local school.”
Leongatha Secondary College principal Brett Windsor said the award was the second to come from the event, with Lyn Skillern winning the Collaborative Community History Award from the Royal Historical Society for her school history, From Inkwell to Internet.
“The amount of work people put in to the event was tremendous and there was real community spirit around that,” he said.
South Gippsland newspapers brought home a swag of awards and recorded one of the best results at the annual VCPA awards ever.
The Star’s sister newspaper The Yarram Standard won the state TAC Award for Journalism in the Circulation under 3000 section, judged by Dr Katrina Mandy Oakham, a senior lecturer in journalism at RMIT. The Standard also won a Highly Commended in the TAC Awards for Local Reporting.
The South Gippsland Sentinel Times won the TAC Award for Journalism in the Circulation 3,000 to 10,000 section and runner-up in the Goss International Awards for Overall Newspaper Excellence-Circulation 3,000 to 10,000. The winner of that section was The Spectator, Hamilton.
The Phillip Island and San Remo Advertiser received an encouragement award in the Goss International Awards for Overall Newspaper Excellence-Circulation under 3,000.
During the VCPA conference held in Geelong last week, Michael Giles of the South Gippsland Sentinel Times was elected as president of the Victorian Country Press Association. He will serve as president for the next two years.
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