The Farmer wins Regional Farming Newspaper of The Year award

The Farmer has won a major newspaper accolade. The monthly paper and its editor Heather Jones have won the Guild of Agricultural Journalists 2011 Regional Farming Newspaper of the Year award.

The coveted Stuart Seaton Award, which celebrates consistent, high quality coverage of farming and rural affairs to a regional audience, was presented at the Guild of Agricultural Journalists Annual meeting on Thursday (MAR 15) at the Birmingham Mailbox.

Heather received a framed certificate naming her regional farming/rural affairs correspondent of 2011 while The Farmer received a certificate and the right to use the strapline: Guild of Agricultural Journalists – Regional Farming Newspaper of the Year.

The competition was judged by Val Chapman, whose father the late Stuart Seaton used to edit The Farmers Guardian who herself is an associate editor of a group of national magazine titles, and Liz Falkingham, a former editor of the Farmers Guardian.

They said Heather has a warm, friendly writing style with articles written to inform while hitting the tone of appealing to those on the periphery of farming as well as those enmeshed in the subject.

The Farmer was an enjoyable read containing a good variety of topic with lots of case studies and material that farmers can identify with and demonstrated a rounded view of the community that it serves.

The judges also said the Farmer is a warm and friendly publication achieving comprehensive regional coverage that gives the reader a real insight into what farmers are achieving within their businesses.

It projects a personality as a publication and was the best presented of the entries in terms of clarity with better layout and better use of images.

The Farmer is a monthly title published by The Shropshire Star at Ketley and Heather has been editor since 2004 although she has been associated with the publication since the 80s. She is a former presenter of BBC Radio Shropshire's farming programme and she now also runs her own Public Relations Company, Heather Jones Communications Limited.

"I am absolutely thrilled to win this award. It is a great accolade for The Farmer and its all thanks to the skill, hard work and dedication of the small but very mighty team that work on it," she said.

"I am from a farming family myself and I know that reading time is limited on today's busy farms. With The Farmer we aim to provide a source of regional and national farming stories and adverts which the farming communities can dip into when needed," she said.

Past winners of the award include agricultural writers at the Western Morning News, the Press & Journal, Aberdeen and the Yorkshire Post