Girl Power Triumphs at WN

Stephanie Preece and Henry Faure Walker

A Midlands newspaper chief has won a major award during her first year at the helm of her publication.

The Worcester News’ Stephanie Preece was named Editor of the Year at the Excellence Awards organised by Newsquest, one of the largest regional news publishers in the UK with more than 200 news brands, magazines and trade periodicals.

Newsquest has an online audience of nearly 39 million users a month and 5.1 million readers a month in print.

Newsquest chief executive Henry Faure Walker, said “The awards give us an opportunity to celebrate and recognise the huge achievements and the depth of talent we are fortunate to have across the Newsquest business – and the phenomenal work they do.”

Commenting on her award, Stephanie said: “I am lucky enough to have a fantastic team of journalists across our three centres (Worcester, Stroud and Stourbridge) and this award was only possible due to their enormous hard work, talent and willingness to try new things.

“It really is a testament to everyone’s achievements, none of which I take for granted. Local journalism continues to be the most exciting, challenging and rewarding job in the world and I count myself very lucky to still be a part of that,” she added.

Stephanie, who took over as editor of the Worcester News in May of last year, is the first female editor of the newspaper – a publication on which she started work as a trainee reporter in 1996. She later worked for the Oxford Mail and Gloucester Citizen before returning to the Worcester News in 2006 firstly as news editor and later head of content.

In 2018, Stephanie was appointed to head up six sister weekly titles – The Kidderminster Shuttle, Stourbridge News, Halesowen & Dudley News and the Bromsgrove and Redditch Advertisers.

Stephanie’s current role as Regional Group Editor also sees her take responsibility for the Malvern Gazette and Evesham Journal. After her appointment, Stephanie said: “It is an enormous honour to be given the role of editor. As a vibrant, growing city, Worcester has a very bright future ahead and I’m excited to be able to play a part in that future along with all our readers.”

More than 70 people from across the company attended the awards ceremony, held at Rutland Hall Hotel, near Oakham.

·Andrew Preece – no relation to Stephanie – from Newsquest’s Midlands South division took the runner-up spot in the Sales Person of the Year category.