Mail on Sunday scoops FOUR of the top awards at Press Oscars – more than any other Sunday newspaper

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  • Katie Hind won Showbiz Reporter Of The Year for her ‘enviable exclusives’
  • Ian Birrell’s exceptional investigations won him Feature Writer Of The Year
  • Craig Brown was named Critic Of The Year for his ‘knowledgeable’ pieces
  • Liz Jones won Columnist Of The Year in the Popular category 


The Mail on Sunday has left its rivals trailing after scooping four coveted Press Awards – more than any other Sunday newspaper.

Judges awarding the accolades – the Oscars of British journalism – heaped praise on the agenda-setting stories and fearless commentary that have made The Mail on Sunday the UK’s biggest-selling Sunday newspaper.

They said our journalism was ‘at the top of its game’ and applauded our ‘highly successful package of exclusives, campaigns and hard-hitting stories, offering something for all’.

Liz Jones wonColumnist Of The Year in the Popular category for her 'irresistible and delightfully indiscreet' confessions in You magazine every Sunday that 'leave the reader desperate for the next instalment'

The remarkable haul last week included Katie Hind (left) winning Showbiz Reporter Of The Year for her ‘enviable exclusives that had real-world impact and continued to make headlines days after they originally broke’, and Liz Jones (right), winning Columnist Of The Year in the Popular category for her ‘irresistible and delightfully indiscreet’ confessions in You magazine every Sunday that ‘leave the reader desperate for the next instalment’

Our remarkable haul last week included:

  • Katie Hind winning Showbiz Reporter Of The Year for her ‘enviable exclusives that had real-world impact and continued to make headlines days after they originally broke’;
  • Ian Birrell, whose exceptional investigations won him Feature Writer Of The Year in the Popular features category, with judges awed by how he was ‘always an advocate for the voiceless’;
  • Craig Brown, who was named Critic Of The Year for his ‘erudite, amusing and knowledgeable’ pieces which are ‘much more than book reviews’;
  • Liz Jones, winning Columnist Of The Year in the Popular category for her ‘irresistible and delightfully indiscreet’ confessions in You magazine every Sunday that ‘leave the reader desperate for the next instalment’.

After racking up an enviable 20 nominations, The Mail on Sunday was also highly commended – runner-up – in four categories, including the illustrious Sunday Newspaper Of The Year prize. 

You was also highly commended in the Magazine Of The Year category, with judges calling it ‘a class act’. They praised its ‘aspirational buffet of feel-good features and lifestyle along with a great balance of interviews and investigations’.

Our hard-hitting sports writer Oliver Holt was highly commended for Columnist Of The Year (Popular) award, with his citation reading: ‘Adept at harnessing the emotional power and pull of sport to get important issues talked about – often articulating important truths on topics many find difficult to discuss. Holt’s column on Alzheimer’s Disease was deeply personal and affecting.’

Craig Brown, who was named Critic Of The Year for his 'erudite, amusing and knowledgeable' pieces which are 'much more than book reviews'

Ian Birrell, whose exceptional investigations won him Feature Writer Of The Year in the Popular features category, with judges awed by how he was 'always an advocate for the voiceless'

Left: Craig Brown, who was named Critic Of The Year for his ‘erudite, amusing and knowledgeable’ pieces which are ‘much more than book reviews’. Right: Ian Birrell, whose exceptional investigations won him Feature Writer Of The Year in the Popular features category, with judges awed by how he was ‘always an advocate for the voiceless’

Katie Hind’s revelation that fashion designer Victoria Beckham had received taxpayers’ money to furlough her staff, despite being worth an estimated £335 million, earned her a commendation for Scoop Of The Year (Popular Life). Judges said: ‘This global story had the gasp factor that all good scoops must have and resulted in a public U-turn from the embarrassed Brand Beckham.’ It was this exclusive – plus Katie’s inside story of how Kay Burley had broken lockdown rules, leading to her suspension from Sky News – that was cited in her showbiz reporter victory.

Meanwhile, Ian Birrell’s exposés of the crisis in care homes and the fight for freedom in Belarus saw him take home his fourth Press Award, winning for stories across the MoS and Tortoise, an online news site. Impressed judges emphasised how ‘his pieces never fail to illuminate and break new ground’.

Our sister title, the Daily Mail, bagged eight awards, including Daily Newspaper Of The Year for the second year in a row.

Its tally included accolades for best columnist, interviewer, scoop, front page and travel journalist, as well as the Cudlipp Award and the Journalists’ Charity Special Award, both for its MailForce campaign to get £12 million of PPE to frontline workers. 

The Society of Editors, which organises the awards, praised newspapers for their achievements in a challenging year defined by the pandemic, saying: ‘Despite this disruption, the press continued to do its job: representing the interests of readers, holding power to account, and telling the story of the human impact of the virus. As fake news online put lives at risk, the press, with its high editorial standards, presented news that could be trusted.’