The Gown was nominated for ‘Local Newspaper of the Year’ in the Slugger Awards, held in Belfast’s Black Box last night.

BY BRENDAN HUGHES

The two other newspapers nominated in the category were the Tyrone Courier and Andersonstown News, with the overall winner being the Courier.

The Awards were created to recognise the work of politicians, journalists, local government officers and bloggers in Northern Ireland democracy.

The best newspaper category was described as important for community participation and development.

“Local newspapers are the life blood of any community. Good local newspapers are becoming hard to find…We looked for papers still prepared to provide a valuable service to their communities”.

Slugger O’Toole, a Northern Ireland politics blog, was started in 2002 by political analyst and journalist Mick Fealty. The site has developed a large following over the years. A 2008 survey conducted by Stratagem showed that 96% of MLAs read the blog.

Included in the colourful event was a video message from Sir Bob Geldof, in which he called for more funding towards new media in Northern Ireland. Stormont video clips also revealed that finance minister Sammy Wilson has no idea what a ‘blog’ is.

Other awards went to Martin McGuinness for Politician of the Year, and Dawn Purvis for MLA of the Year. BBC Hearts and Minds’ Julia Paul collected the prize for Journalist of the Year.