THE Hampshire Chronicle's app has been shortlisted for a national award.
The app, which launched in April, has made it to the top three in the App of the Year category at the Press Gazette's Future of Media Awards 2024.
These awards recognise excellence in digital news media across the UK and worldwide.
Categories include website and app of the year, digital storytelling, reader revenue strategy, advertising technology, newsletters and podcasts.
The winners will be revealed at a ceremony on Thursday, September 12 at London’s Hilton Bankside. The ceremony will follow the Future of Media Technology Conference being held in the same venue.
The Future of Media Awards recognise journalism from around the world and look at the best digital products in news media, not just the journalism. The judges were looking for technical excellence, evidence of audience and commercial success and editorial brilliance.
Press Gazette editor-in-chief and chairman of judges Dominic Ponsford said: “These awards are special because they are free to enter and are judged by an unrivalled panel of industry experts. Over the last three weeks the 33 judges have worked tirelessly to ensure the entries were properly scrutinised.
“Over two days of in-person discussions, the judges kicked the tyres of all the entries and debated their merits in order to ensure we arrived at fair shortlists.
“The finalists provide a snapshot of publishers who are lighting the way to a sustainable future for quality journalism in the digital age.”
Hampshire Chronicle editor Kimberley Barber said: "I am so proud that the Hampshire Chronicle's app has been shortlisted.
"We may just be a weekly, local newspaper, with a small team, but we have made great strides in the world of digital journalism in the past two years.
"Not only does our website now reach more than 1m unique people per month, it has a growing base of hundreds of digital subscribers, many of whom regularly use the app. The app only launched in April and it clearly displays our news, with a great puzzle section, and a miniature version of that week's Hampshire Chronicle (and an archive of issues for the past year).
"We are up against some big hitters for the award, but I hope we have proved that there is a still a future for little old weekly regional titles too!"
Other contenders for the title are the Financial Times and the Telegraph.
The app is free to download from the App Store or Google's Playstore. For more go to hampshirechronicle.co.uk/app/
Gain full access with a digital subscription, full price is £3.99 per month.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here