The Telegraph Wins Website of the Year Plus Three Further Awards at The Press Awards

The Telegraph won News Website of the Year for the second year in a row at the Press Awards on Thursday 18 April.

The annual Awards also saw the Telegraph awarded Broadsheet Front Page of the Year for The Lockdown Files as well as Photographer of the Year for Simon Townsley and Travel Journalist of the Year for Chris Leadbetter. 

The Press Award Judges called the Telegraph’s website “an outstanding product, which uses excellent design in an imaginative and innovative way to maximise some of the most important stories of the year.”

“The King’s coronation was a showpiece of online big-event coverage, and included a detailed 3D tour of Westminster Abbey, while a story on the rewriting of Dahl’s books to take out potentially offensive language brimmed with animated examples and prompted comment from the Queen and Salman Rushdie – and a U-turn by the publishers.”

Simon Townsley’s photographs – including in the aftermath of the Turkey earthquake and starvation in the Democratic Republic of Congo – were described by the judges as a “beautiful set of images with a wide variety of assignments that clearly show a photographer at the top of his game and who was a witness to many of the biggest news stories”.

The judges said The Telegraph’s front page on the first day of its coverage of the Lockdown Files, a series of WhatsApp messages sent between ministers and advisers during Covid-19 “represented an enormous volume of material to be released over several days, so effective presentation from the outset was critical. This front page combined a compelling splash news line with a powerful banner.”

Chris Leadbeater’s travel dispatches from Sweden and Egypt among other places, were described by the judges as “beautiful, expansive writing [that] gives a great sense of place. His observations are enjoyable, inventive and take the reader with him on his travels”.