NEWCASTLE Herald investigative reporter Donna Page has been named ACM's Journalist of the Year, adding another honour to her long list of accolades.
Page won the Gold ACM Excellence Award at a ceremony in Sydney this week for her body of work over the past 12 months, highlighted by her exhaustive investigation into the Scott Neylon letter-writing saga.
The series also earned Page the Daily News Story of the Year award.
It was a stellar night too for Herald court reporter Sam Rigney, who also collected two coveted awards.
Rigney won Feature Story of the Year for his reporting on Newcastle musician Daniel Hanson, who was jailed for a maximum of 28 years for sexually and indecently assaulting 14 girls and young women.
The story was also finalist for outstanding regional reporting in the Kennedy Awards for journalistic excellence this year.
Rigney, who won a Kennedy Award in 2019 for outstanding court reporting, also collected the ACM Court Story of the Year award for his report on serial rapist Colin Babbage.
Newcastle's Simon Walker won Commercial Feature of the Year for his HMRI special feature.
The Herald, the Maitland Mercury and the Singleton Argus won the award for Newsroom Collaboration for their work on the tragic Greta bus accident in June, which killed 10 passengers and injured 25 others after a wedding in the Hunter Valley.
The Mercury was named Non-Daily Masthead of the Year, while the Illawarra Mercury was named Daily Masthead of the Year.
Page is one of the most decorated journalists in the country.
She has won three Walkley Awards for excellence in Australian journalism for her work on the Herald team investigations into the Williamtown PFAS contamination in 2016 and the Your Right to Know series in 2020 as well as for her reporting with Nick Bielby in 2019 on the Truegain pollution scandal at Rutherford.
Page also won a Sport Australia Media Award in 2021 for her stories on Newcastle's City and Suburban Cricket Association and a United Nations Association of Australia Award for environmental reporting in 2015 for the Herald's Toxic Truth series on the legacy of the former Pasminco lead smelter at Boolaroo.
Herald editor Lisa Allan said she was immensely proud of the Herald newsroom for its work over the past 12 months and congratulated Page and Rigney for their well-deserved recognition.
"Great journalism is never about winning awards but I'm thrilled for Donna and Sam because of the incredible amount of work they put into these stories, and all their stories," she said.
"I'm very proud of them, and I'm very proud of the entire Herald team.
"Our journalists, photographers and editors work tirelessly day in day out, giving a voice to the voiceless and holding power to account.
"I also wish to thank our audience and subscribers, whose support allows us to continue to produce the quality journalism we are known for, and that our readers deserve."
ACM editorial director Rod Quinn said the winners and their journalism had a profound impact on regional and rural communities and proved the value of local and agricultural news to Australians largely ignored by big city media.
"I am incredibly proud of the 2023 ACM Excellence Awards winners. They cover stories that would otherwise go untold and pose questions otherwise unasked," he said.
"And they do this with diligence, passion and a deep commitment to their towns, cities and communities."
