Walkleys slammed for scrapping award for ‘best headline’

The Walkley Foundation has been accused of dismissing the work of production journalists, after scrapping its only award dedicated to the work of the industry’s ‘behind the scenes’ professionals.

Anthony De Ceglie, editor-in-chief of The West Australian: ‘To be blunt, it smacks of elitism.’ Picture: Colin Murty

The Walkley Foundation has been accused of dismissing the work of Australia’s production journalists, after scrapping its only award dedicated to the work of the industry’s “behind the scenes” professionals.

Last Thursday, the foundation announced that an 11-month review into the Walkley Awards had concluded that two categories should be “retired” – that of the ‘Best Headline, Caption and Hook’, and the prize for ‘Public Service Journalism’.

The decision to scrap the award for best headline sparked immediate fury across the ranks of the nation’s production journalists, who were aghast that an entire cohort of the profession had been sidelined by the governing body of Australia’s most prestigious media awards.

“To be blunt, it smacks of elitism,” Anthony De Ceglie, editor-in-chief of The West Australian, told The Australian.

De Ceglie won the Walkley Award for best headline in 2018 when he was deputy editor of The Daily Telegraph.

Along with the Telegraph’s Brad Clifton, De Ceglie crafted the famous ‘Bundle of Joyce’ front page headline, to accompany the newspaper’s scoop that then-Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce was expecting a baby with a former staff member.

“I can’t think of any story – no matter how brilliant – where the headline isn’t read first and integral to drawing the audience in. In fact, brilliant and bold headlines have never been more important to the craft of journalism than right now in the age of clickbait and listicles, and with artificial intelligence knocking on our doors,” De Ceglie said.

“The Best Headline award has been around since 1960; more than six decades of journalistic history has been ended on a whim, and that is incredibly shortsighted.”

Walkley winner Simon Firth.

Walkleys Judging Board chair Michael Brissenden.

Senior news producer at The Australian, Simon Firth, won the 2022 Walkley Award for best headline – his winning entry included the headline “Hits & Mrs: It’s an Oscars like no other”, to accompany the story on Will Smith’s attack on Chris Rock at the Academy Awards.

Firth said the retirement of the award is a “dreadful oversight”.

“I think it’s a misstep because as far as I can tell there are now no awards for production journalists,” Firth said.

“Every ‘content-creating’ winner of a Walkley Award since their inception – all reporters and writers, senior and junior – would freely agree their work has been improved, and their blushes saved, by production journalists checking their facts, polishing their words and dressing up their stories with clever headlines and appealing captions and hooks.

“And yet now these talented and hardworking behind-the-scenes production journalists will have zero recognition.

“I was deeply honoured to win last year, and I am just as deeply disappointed that my colleagues can’t enjoy a similar recognition in the future. I strongly urge the foundation to reconsider and reinstate the only award that covers the under-appreciated cohort of production journalists.”

Michael Brissenden, chair of the Walkleys Judging Board, defended the decision to tweak the award categories.

“Sub editors and production journalists are of course still key to output, and there are still a small number of chief subs, but increasingly section editors and journalists are doing the bulk of the production work,” he told The Australian.

“Sub editors and production journalists can obviously be involved in team entries whenever they want. The innovation category is a good example. We encourage news organisations to make sure they don’t overlook the production journalists when putting forward team entries.”

Some industry eyebrows were also raised by the introduction of a new award for ‘Best Explainer Journalism’.

Brissenden said the review was told that most modern newsrooms were investing heavily in “explainer journalism”.

“‘Explainers’ generally have a different tone than most other deep dives or investigative pieces. Many in the industry told us this was an area of real growth and it would continue to grow over the years to come,” he said.