The Australian‘s Hedley Thomas and Slade Gibson took out the top Walkley Award last night for their work on podcast The Teacher’s Pet. But depending on your favoured news source, that wasn’t necessarily the main takeaway from the event.
Of course the Oz led with Thomas’ gongs (he also won the investigative journalism award for the same project), as did the ABC, which we thought was generous given the public broadcaster won eight of its own awards last night (although its press release was predictably more interested in the ABC’s wins).
But if you looking to Sydney’s Daily Telegraph for your news this morning, you would have thought that paper came out on top. Its national political editor Sharri Markson, along with now-Fairfax reporter Kylar Loussikian and now-Oz editor Chris Dore, won scoop of the year for the Tele’s Barnaby Joyce and Vikki Campion revelations.
Under the headline, “Tele team scoop honours”, the paper also reported Markson’s other awards this year, the paper’s win in the best headline, caption or hook category and its photographer Jenny Evans’ win for best news photograph. It didn’t mention Thomas or any other winners.
The Tele’s Melbourne stablemate, the Herald Sun, similarly ignored the success of any other paper, only covering its racing writer Leo Schlink’s win in the sports category.
Over in Fairfax’s The Sydney Morning Herald, investigative journalist Kate McClymont’s win for investigative journalism (along with the rest of a Fairfax-ABC team) for the Don Burke story led that paper’s coverage. Other Fairfax winners got a mention, with Thomas and Gibson mentioned in the last line.
For Australian Financial Review readers, it was their reporter Jonathan Shapiro, winner of the business category, who was the focus. In the short piece, the only other journalist to be mentioned was his Fin colleague Edmund Tadros, who was nominated in the same category.
The ABC’s former Papua New Guinea correspondent Sean Dorney won the outstanding contribution to journalism award, and the public broadcaster also won in the public service journalism, Indigenous affairs, radio/audio news and current affairs, production, camerawork, video news reporting, and the two TV current affairs categories.
The full list of winners is here.
“Who really did the best out of the Walkleys?”
A question nobody outside the journalism bubble would ever ask. Sorry. Seriously nobody cares about internal industry trumpet blowing. The Walkleys only get a headline because vanity journalism. Call me when the same prominence is given to electrician of the year or hairdresser of the year or botanist of the year.
Headline: “Major newspapers suffer collective dislocated shoulders through overly enthusiastic patting themselves on the back”
You will need a small type face
Ah yes, the Wankleys. That minor embarrassment of Sharri Markson, winning “Scoop of the year”, for the Barnaby Joyce story, broken weeks before by True Crime Weekly and then by Independent Australia.
She Stoops to Conquer.
I always scoop up my dog’s “honours” when I’m walking him.
So after reading this article we still don’t know who won the Walkley?