Local Ireland, the association which represents local news publishers across Ireland, has launched its tenth annual awards for the 2025 ceremony.
Entries are being invited for a record 19 competitive categories, including new awards for ‘Young Journalist of the Year’ and ‘Political Coverage of the Year’.
This year’s awards will be the eighth to be sponsored by the National Lottery, which has its own award for ‘Best Community Journalist’.
President of Local Ireland and Managing Director of The Southern Star Seán Mahon said he was delighted that the organisation are adding two new categories to the awards this year.
‘The “Young Journalist of the Year Award” will recognise the strength and depth of talent within local news publishers, while the “Political Coverage of the Year” award underlines the great work that we do in covering local politics’.
‘I want to thank the National Lottery for their continuing support as our headline sponsor, which has helped us grow and evolve these awards that recognise the important work that our journalists do week in and week out.’
National Lottery head of corporate affairs, Jennifer Crowe, continued to say how local media ‘plays a vital role in informing, inspiring and empowering people through powerful storytelling that reflects the heart of our society.
‘At the National Lottery, we deeply align with these values, and champion them through the funding raised for thousands of good causes across Ireland.
‘We are immensely proud of our ongoing partnership with the Local Ireland Media Awards, which honour outstanding journalists and media professionals who bring to light the stories that might otherwise go unheard, stories of remarkable individuals, events, and initiatives that shape our communities. We look forward to celebrating the exceptional work of local media once again.’
This year’s awards will be held at the Mullingar Park Hotel on September 11th with RTÉ Lyric FM presenter Marty Whelan as host.
Chair of the judging panel is the author, journalist and broadcaster Alison O’Connor, who said that the awards ‘are all about recognising the excellence of the work done by reporters in regional newspapers all over the country.
‘Each year the entries reflect the very high standard of that work done by those journalists.’
‘It is an honour to chair the judging panel and this year that stellar line-up will be joined by two new judges, RTÉ Upfront presenter Katie Hannon and DCU lecturer Conor Tiernan.
The judging panel also includes broadcaster and journalist Dearbhail McDonald, Emeritus Professor at TUD Michael Foley, Dawn Wheatley of the DCU School of Communications, and the Managing Director of Kinetic Ireland, Andrew Sinclair.
Also on the panel are the photographer and former Irish Times picture editor Frank Miller, broadcaster and writer Valerie Cox, journalist and author PJ Cunningham, novelist and newspaper columnist Dr Martina Devlin, policy editor of the Business Post Daniel Murray, and deputy night editor of the Irish Sun, Gerry McCarthy.
Entries will close on Friday June 27th, and the shortlist of nominations will be announced at the beginning of August.
