CPNSW Newspaper AwardsCountry Press NSW Inc has a well-documented history of supporting and promoting newspaper publishers throughout New South Wales.
We were founded in 1900 as the New South Wales Country Press Association and made minor adjustments to our name in 1986 to Country Press of New South Wales Inc. and from 2008 we are known as Country Press NSW Inc.
Through our membership, entries are sought every year from a wide range of categories, including journalism, community involvement, reporting, feature writing, photography, printing, advertising, marketing and overall excellence.
These awards are proudly led by a suite of EC Sommerlad Memorial Awards for Journalism, ensuring outstanding quality of competition and recognition for exceptional journalists and their writing and presentation skills.
We are justly proud of all our awards and the following extract will provide an insight into the source of our pride, the recognition provided to newspaper staff and the value we place on generating quality newspapers for the population we serve – our readers.
The EC Sommerlad Memorial Awards for Journalism
“Country journalism is distinguished by its intimate contact with readers; it mirrors the life of the community and is the authentic currency of rural activities. Country papers can build themselves impregnably into district esteem by their championing of country needs…I am pained to see a country paper without an editorial. It is not enough for a paper to be a mere recorder of what happens. A virile and enterprising paper leads rather than follows.”
From “What is ahead of the country paper?” an address by EC Sommerlad to the annual Country Press conference in 1945.
Ernest Christian Sommerlad has an honoured place in the history of the Country Press Association of New South Wales. When proprietor of the Glen Innes Examiner, he was appointed general manager of The Country Press Co-operative Company and moved to Sydney in 1929. During the following 23 years he became Managing Director and Chairman of the company, Secretary, President and life member of the NSW Country Press Association and life member of the Australian Provincial Press Association.
He led the association through the crises of the 1930s Depression and World War II and was an outspoken champion of the country press and country people.
On his death in 1952, members of the association contributed to a memorial fund to establish the Sommerlad Awards for Journalism to encourage the high editorial and ethical standards he advocated and practised. These were the first journalism awards established in Australia.
