The awards are held to celebrate the hard work carried out by groups, charities and colleges to provide their local community with interesting and relevant news and information.
Representatives from the publications attended the awards ceremony held at Cambridge United Football Club which gave them a chance to share ideas and get feedback from the judges. This year 32 magazines entered with a combined circulation of almost 190,000.
Judging the awards this year were Clive Weatherley - Joint Creative Director of the creative agency Mobas, Neil Whiteside - Outreach & Corporate Development Manager and Presenter at Cambridge 105 radio, Tara Cox - Senior Reporter at the Cambridge News, Paul Henry - a member of the Cambridge Rotary club and Tracy Simpson - Head of Lending at The Cambridge, .
The judges had the tough task of assessing magazines published in a 30-mile radius of Cambridge throughout 2017. They considered editorial quality, community content, use of imagery and overall presentation, as well as the publication’s usefulness to those it serves.
The Cambridge’s Chief Operating Officer Andy Lucas acted as compere for the evening alongside Chief Risk Officer Victoria Stubbs.
Andy said: “It was great to see so many entries this year, including quite a few new magazines. There was yet again a huge variety of magazine styles and clearly there’s still a strong demand for good quality, printed communications in our communities.
“It’s wonderful to see there are so many people who are passionate about this and running the Community Magazine Awards each year is our way of showing our appreciation to them and for the hard work they put into creating the magazines.”
And the winners were:
- High Frequency (for magazines with 10-12 issues a year):
Gold: Willingham News
Silver: The Link
Bronze: Girton Parish News - Low Frequency (for magazines with nine or less issues a year):
Gold: Newport News
Silver: Parish Pump
Bronze: Wilbrahams’ Warbler - Best Charity: Camcycle
- Best College: OP News
- Best Front Page: Bounce and Newport News
- Best Photo: Beach News
- Best Editorial: Tailcorn
- Most Improved: B Inspired (Previous Winners: Sawston Scene)