Holyrood picks up four gongs and a highly commended at annual magazine awards

Holyrood magazine has swept the board at the PPA Scotland magazine awards, picking up four prizes as well as a highly commended at the annual event.

In the individual categories, editor Mandy Rhodes was named columnist of the year and journalist Andrew Learmonth was highly commended in the hotly contested writer of the year category.

Freelance photographer Kevin Thomson's picture of the Kenmure Street protest, which featured on the cover of the magazine in May, was named photograph of the year, while Holyrood’s sales team picked up the gong for sales performance of the year.

Finally, the magazine was also named business publication of the year.

Rhodes, who is also managing director of Holyrood Communications, said: "I couldn't be more proud of the whole team at Holyrood.

“It takes a great team to produce a magazine of this quality and I have one of the best. The passion, commitment, talent and sheer hard work of everyone deserves to be recognised in these awards because we are all in it together. Very proud.

“I am also particularly pleased for the freelance photographer, Kevin Thomson, who took the extraordinary photograph of the protest in Kenmure Street last year when Glaswegians came out in force to prevent the detention of two men seeking asylum by the UK immigration forces.

“The story of how we found the image, traced Kevin, and got the picture on the magazine's front cover with just hours before we went to print, captured all that I love about journalism and the power of print. Kevin, meanwhile, absolutely captured a moment of history."

PPA Scotland is the membership body for Scotland’s magazine publishing industry, representing around 250 companies ranging from consumer magazine publishers to business-to-business data and information providers, customer magazine publishers and smaller independents.

It says its awards are designed to “recognise, celebrate and elevate the achievements and progress made by teams and individuals across the Scottish publishing and media industry”.