The Australian rewarded for premium journalism

Four journalists from The Australian took home prizes at News Corp’s 2020 News Awards for stories ranging from Chinese influence to bushfire recovery

The Weekend Australian Magazine’s Trent Dalton wins the Storyteller of the Year award at the 2020 News Awards hosted by MC Hannah Hollis on Thursday.

News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson says the push to force technology “behemoths” such as Google and Facebook to compensate media outlets for news content they use on their platforms has “finally” started to pay off.

Mr Thomson praised News Corp’s efforts to protect independent journalism at the company’s prestigious annual News Awards on Thursday evening, where four journalists from The Australian took home prizes for stories ranging from Chinese influence to bushfire recovery.

Australia’s biggest digital publisher and the owner of titles including The Australian, The Wall Street Journal and The Times has been leading the global charge to force technology giants to pay for content provided by media companies under a world-first, royalty-style system.

The Australian investigations editor Sharri Markson. Picture: Jonathan Ng

“The efficacy of standing firm against behemoth digital has become more obvious in recent weeks,” Mr Thomson said via a video message on Thursday.

“Finally, belatedly, both Facebook and Google have conceded the principle of a premium for premium journalism.”

He used the occasion to pay tribute to a range of journalists at the company’s News Awards night, including 12 nominees and four winners from The Australian.

Investigations editor Sharri Markson and national chief of staff Kylar Loussikian, both Walkley Award-winners who returned to The Australian this year, won the Achievements in Investigative Journalism award for their explosive story revealing how the ­Chinese government recruited Australian scientists and academics to a ­secretive research program. The Australian’s Damon Johnston, Rachel Baxendale and Remy Varga were also recognised as ­finalists in the Investigative Journalism category for their exposé on a Chinese agent’s secret role in Australia.

The Australian business reporter John Stensholt. Picture: Aaron Francis

The Australian national chief of Staff Kylar Loussikian.

The Weekend Australian Magazine’s Trent Dalton won the Storyteller of the Year award for a body of work including a feature that explored the trail of destruction left by the summer bushfires.

Hedley Thomas, Slade Gibson and Peter Murphy were among the nominees for Storyteller of the Year for their acclaimed podcast The Night Driver, which delved into the search for missing NSW woman Janine­ Vaughan.

In business, The Australian’s editor of The List, John Stensholt, took home the Keith McDonald Award for business journalist of the year.

The Sir Keith Murdoch Award, also known as the Journalist of the Year award, went to the Herald Sun and Sunday Herald Sun’s health editor Grant McArthur for his coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic in Victoria.