For the third straight year, your Cambrian News has been nominated as the Best Weekly Newspaper in Wales. And Reporter Debbie Luxon has also been short-listed in the News Writer of the Year category.

Cambrian News won the title in 2023 and was pipped to the post last year by the Western Telegraph. Both newspapers will be going head to head again this year - along with the Powys County Times - in the annual competition that honours the best in English and Welsh journalism in the nation.

“To be short-listed three years’ running is a considerable achievement for the news team at Cambrian News,” said Editor Mick O’Reilly. “It speaks to our consistency in being the best that we can be each week and it also reflects our huge influence online.

“We won’t be intimidated by any authority or anyone and we are fearless in our reporting of local news and putting it into the context of Wales itself,” he said. “We’ll ask the questions others won’t and we report without fear or favour.”

He said that the nomination of Reporter Debbie Luxon in the News Writer of the Year category shows that the team at the Cambrian News can and do punch with the heavyweights of Welsh journalism.

Debbie’s ground-breaking investigation into homelessness across mid and west Wales was spurred on by the tragic discovery of a body in Aberystwyth harbour in June 2024. Debbie spent six weeks investigating the life and death of Carol Kovacs, 59, a Romanian national who had been living rough on a local beach before his death.

Her ‘End of the Line’ special report revealed the extent of homelessness across the region, how social and emergency services were unable to cope with the numbers of those living without a roof over their heads, and the pain, discrimination and turmoil faced by those living on the streets.

“End of the Line is a remarkable piece of reportage that is rare in newspapers these days,” Mr O’Reilly said. “We are constantly being asked to do more with less. To be able then to spend such a long time on a single project speaks to our commitment to telling local stories and issues in the best way we can.”

Cambrian News is up against Newsquest weeklies the Powys County Times and the Western Telegraph.

“I am proud that 100 per cent of the content in Cambrian News is produced within Wales,” Mr O’Reilly said. “Whether it’s the insightful reporting of Chris Haines from the Senedd or from reporters assigned to the Welsh Local Democracy service, to the content produced by our teams from mid and west Wales - it all comes from Wales. I think all you have to do is look at the shared content between all Newsquest titles in Great Britain and readers can make up their own minds as to what’s value for money, and what’s Welsh and what’s not.”

The awards will be handed our at a gala in Cardiff on 16 January.