Party wave pic wins at press awards

A SURFING snap by Times News Group photographer Peter Marshall was judged one of the winners at this year’s Victorian Country Press Association (VCPA) Awards.

The picture, which showed some of the invitees to this year’s 50-Year Storm Invitational enjoying a party wave at Bells Beach, featured on the front cover of the June 7 edition of the Surf Coast Times and won Best Sport Photo for publications with circulation over 6,000.

In their remarks, judges said it was “a great photo coupled with a great headline and a fantastic layout on the front page which incorporates the paper’s masthead and an overlaid headline and caption – a technique which can impact on the integrity of an image if not used judiciously but in this case works a treat”.

Continuing the surfing theme, the Times News Group was also highly commended in the Best Editorial Video Award for a series of young interviewers talking to surfers at the 2018 Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach, which judges praised as “simple in their content but exactly what works in the video medium”.

The Surf Coast Times’ coverage of the Anglesea Futures project was highly commended in the Best Community Campaign Award for its “comprehensive coverage” of the issues.

The Surf Coast Times was also commended in the Overall Newspaper Excellence Award, with judges describing it as “a quality newspaper with a magazine touch”.

The VCPA Awards were presented following the association’s annual conference, held at Rydges Hotel in Melbourne on Friday last week.