The creativity and commitment of The Weekend Sun team has been praised at the New Zealand Community Newspaper Association's 2022 Awards, with the community newspaper winning Best Front Page category while its photographer John Borren was named Best Photographer.

The Weekend Sun won the Best Front Page accolade by entering four covers published during 2022, and was presented with the award on Friday night, May 19, at the CNA Awards evening in Auckland.

The four entries – all photographed by John – showed a Serbian-born Tauranga film-maker on-set in a derelict house to film a cult folk horror; an international student dressed in cultural attire to promote a multicultural awareness day; a Tauranga adrenalin-junkie ‘creeking' in a BOP river; and a primary school dance group in costume celebrating their win at the National Jump Jam Championships.

The judges said The Weekend Sun delivered a series of clean, bright engaging front pages. 'Lovely combination of commanding imagery, clever headlines and use of colour. Impossible to pick a single favourite out of the four as they all make the reader stand up and take notice.”

The Weekend Sun editor Merle Cave is very proud of the entire Sun Media team who work on creating the front pages of the publication. 'This award shows the passion, commitment and talents of the entire team, who work really hard to deliver clean, bright and engaging covers for our readers.

'Our team is smart, savvy and passionate about what we do – and this win is a testament to the entire team's hard work and commitment to telling community news in the Western Bay of Plenty.”

The Weekend Sun photographer John Borren won the Best Photographer from entering a portfolio of 10 photographs published during 2022.

The judges said: 'As a news photographer, John has demonstrated an exceptional ability to capture moments that tell powerful stories, and his portfolio of photographs showcases his immense talent in the areas of creativity, composition, and visual impact”.

The judges also said John's work stands out for his ability its ability to evoke motions and convey a sense of place and time. 'His use of light and colour is masterful, and his compositions are both striking and thought-provoking. He has a unique ability to capture the essence of his subjects, whether they are people, places or events, and his photographs often transcend the moment to become works of art in their own right.”

Merle says Sun Media is extremely thankful to have someone of John's calibre on the team – and she is not surprised by his latest accolade. 'John is talented, intuitive, professional, passionate and immensely skilful in photography – he can capture things not seen by others – and every brief he's given, he nails it.

'So a big congratulations to John for being recognised nationally for his talents.”

Also at the CNA awards night, the Ashburton Guardian's managing editor Daryl Holden won the inaugural Brian Rogers Memorial Award for Best Headline Writer.

Sun Media director Claire Rogers ran the Bay of Plenty-based company with husband Brian – who was editor of The Weekend Sun – until his passing last September.

Merle says Brian was widely-known known for being a clever, witty headline writer and the memorial award is very fitting.

'Brian has left us an incredible legacy of editorial skill, style, wisdom and know-how in the Sun Media newsroom. We very much miss him, and so we're thankful to Claire and family for creating this fine award in his honour.”