Paper takes major church media accolade

Good News for Norwich has been awarded a major national media accolade alongside BBC Radio Norfolk and BBC East TV.

The Norfolk trio all won top honours at the prestigious national Andrew Cross Awards which were presented at the Churches Media Conference at Swanwick in Derbyshire on June 8.

Good News for Norwich, the free inter-denominational newspaper distributed to 9,000 church members in Norwich twice a year and to 80,000 homes across the city every Christmas, received a Commendation in the Regional Religious Periodical class. The award was collected by editor Keith Morris.

BBC East won the Television - Festivals, Worship, Discussion, Magazine category for Inside Out - Salvation Army Girl, a documentary shown on BBC1 about Norwich Citadel member Laura Jackson aged 16. The award was collected by producer Patricia Williamson.

BBC Radio Norfolk won a Commendation in the Special Programme - Festivals, Worship, Discussion, Music category for its programme On the Ball City, produced by Tony Mallion. The programme covered the Norwich City centenary service held at Norwich Cathedral.

Good News editor Keith Morris, said: “This is a great honour and deserved recognition for our hard-working team of volunteers.

“The stories in the paper and the broadcast output on BBC radio and TV show that the Christian community is alive and well and achieving much in Norwich and Norfolk.

“The thing which particularly sets the Good News for Norwich apart from almost every other regional, and most national, religious publications is that it serves and draws support from almost the entire range of Christian churches and organisations across the city,” said Keith.

Judges praised Good News for its emphasis on human interest stories of people’s faith, strong use of photojournalism and colourful design.

Other winners in the awards included the BBC’s Songs of Praise magazine, singer Aled Jones and Ruth Gledhill of The Times.

The Churches’ Media Council brings together the Churches, Christian people working in or with the media, the broadcasting authorities, trainers and other relevant national bodies

Its annual awards are for local and regional religious broadcasting, religious video production, web site design, national and regional religious press. They aim to encourage and appreciate those involved in making local religious programmes, creating and maintaining websites and publishing religious papers and magazines.

The Churches’ Media Council is an agency of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, and Churches Together in England, and has close links with other ecumenical bodies in Britain and Ireland.