National media award for Westmeath Independent

The Westmeath Independent has won a national award for best advertising campaign.

The paper had been shortlisted in the final three in five categories in the annual Local Ireland media awards which took place last night in the Radisson Blu Hotel in Athlone.
The awards, sponsored by National Lottery, honour those involved in producing 45 local weekly newspaper titles in both print and digital format every week outside Dublin and Cork.

A series of advertisements by the Athlone Regional Sports Centre and carried in the Westmeath Independent was selected as the overall national winner of the Best Advertising Campaign. Group sales manager Padraic Martin collected the award on stage at the ceremony, hosted by RTE's Marty Morrissey.
The Westmeath Independent was also shortlisted in the final three in four other categories; Best Use of Photography; Best Sports Story of the Year; Best Photograph; and Best Local Advertisement.
Editor Tadhg Carey was shortlisted for the Best Sports Story of the Year award for an article on match-fixing allegations surrounding two Athlone Town players. Photographer Ann Hennessy was shortlisted for a spectacular shot from an Ulster Bank League Division 1B match played at Dubarry Park, Athlone in March 2017.
The best use of photography award nomination referred to a portfolio of photographs that helped, along with our reporters’ journalism, to tell important news and sport stories.

Eilis Ryan, Deputy Editor of our sister paper, Westmeath Examiner, in Mullingar, won the best news feature section for a two-part feature on the Westmeath links to Argentina.