THE Evening Press has been voted Daily Newspaper of the Year in a prestigious national competition.

Our campaigning stance and our coverage of last year's floods helped us defeat intense rivalry from dailies all over the country to clinch the title.

The honour was one of three accorded the Press at a ceremony in Southampton last night. Chief Photographer Garry Atkinson was voted Photographer of the Year, and this website, www.thisisyork.co.uk, was also declared the best, in the 2001 awards of our parent company, Newsquest, Britain's biggest regional newspaper publisher.

Judges awarding the Newspaper of the Year title said they were looking at the content, design, quality of writing, and use of pictures in the papers they examined.

They were also looking for human interest stories, getting under the skin of the readership, and campaigning.

Of the Evening Press, they said: "This paper is strong, bright, and focused, with a good use of pictures.

"The editions the judges saw were concentrating on special issues such as flooding and Women at War, but what they did with the papers led us to believe that the paper would have a strong, consistent approach in its day-to-day coverage.

"There were some show-stopping pages to judge."

Receiving the award, Evening Press editor, Liz Page, said it was a tribute to all at the paper, particularly those who had striven, often in atrocious conditions, to cover the floods crisis of last autumn.

Updated: 10:49 Tuesday, October 02, 2001