McKenzie claims journalist of the year honours,as Herald,Age make mark at Kennedy Awards

The Sydney Morning Herald andThe Age won several Kennedy Awards for excellence in journalism on Friday night asNick McKenzie,investigative reporter for both mastheads and Channel Nine,took out the journalist of the year honour for a second time.

More than 400 people gathered at Royal Randwick in Sydney to see McKenzie take out the gong again,after he won it in 2020.

McKenzie andJoel Tozer also won the outstanding finance reporting forThe Fallen Star for both mastheads and60 Minutes,while Tozer andAdele Ferguson claimed the outstanding consumer affairs reporting award forBad Look:Exposing the dark underbelly of the cosmetic surgery industry, also on60 Minutes.

Ferguson,Lauren Day and Klaus Toft won the outstanding investigative reporting honour forCosmetic Cowboys,a joint production for the ABC’sFour Corners and Nine publications.

TheHerald’s state political editorAlexandra Smith and state political reporterLucy Cormack claimed the outstanding political reporting award for their coverage of the John Barilaro New York trade posting saga.

Tim Elliott from theGood Weekend won the Jim Oram Award for outstanding feature writing forKnives Out.

Megan Herbert fromThe Age won the Vince O’Farrell Award for outstanding cartoon for Big week for SCOTUS.

“I am absolutely thrilled for our winners and also congratulateour other nominees,”Herald editor Bevan Shields said.

“The talentedHerald newsroom works bloody hard day in,day out,and it’s great to see skill and dedication rewarded,and good journalism celebrated for the important role it plays.”

Channel Seven commentator Bruce McAvaney was honoured with the outstanding lifetime achievement award.

The awards are named in honour of Sydney crime reporter Les Kennedy,who died in 2011 at the age of 53.

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Jamie Berry is a journalist at the Sydney Morning Herald

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