One of Australia's best investigative journalists has taken out the top gong at ACM's annual news awards, while the Illawarra Mercury and The Maitland Mercury have been named best regional mastheads for 2023. At a ceremony held on Sydney Harbour to celebrate the highest quality regional and rural journalism published across nearly 100 mastheads, The Land was named agricultural masthead of the year. Donna Page, a long-standing reporter at the Newcastle Herald, was honoured with the Gold ACM Excellence Award for her tenacious reporting, including an exhaustive investigation into the 10-year letter-writing campaign linked to the local council chief executive and ClubsNSW. Just three years into her journalism career, Rachel Simmonds picked up the prestigious Young Journalist of the Year prize. The Stock & Land reporter from Victoria covered everything from snail infestations in the Wimmera to wind farm debates and wool industry pioneers in 2023. ACM editorial director Rod Quinn said the winners and their journalism had a profound impact on regional and rural communities and proved the value of local and agricultural news to Australians largely ignored by big city media. "I am incredibly proud of the 2023 ACM Excellence Awards winners. They cover stories that would otherwise go untold and pose questions otherwise unasked," he said. "And they do this with diligence, passion and a deep commitment to their towns, cities and communities." From court and property news to tragedy, politics and triumphant local sporting wins, winners were named in 34 categories at the ceremony on Monday, December 11. Donna Page, Newcastle Herald Gold Rachel Simmonds, Stock & Land Young Journalist of the Year Anna Houlahan, national news team Trainee of the Year Illawarra Mercury Masthead of the Year - Daily The Maitland Mercury Masthead of the Year - Non-daily The Land Masthead of the Year - agricultural Central Western Daily Editorial Director's Award The Advocate Building a Subscriber Community Donna Page, Newcastle Herald Daily News Story of the Year James Parker, Bega District News Non-daily News Story of the Year Shan Goodwin Agricultural Story of the Year Brendan Crabb, Illawarra Mercury Property Story of the Year Sam Rigney, Newcastle Herald Allison Hore, Daily Liberal (highly commended) Court Story of the Year Grace Ryan, Central Western Daily Comment Story of Year Adrian Rollins, The Canberra Times Analysis Story of the Year Sam Rigney, Newcastle Herald Samantha Townsend, The Land (highly commended) Feature Story of the Year Melanie Dinjaski, The Canberra Times Emily Clooney, The Advocate (highly commended) Sport Story of the Year - Daily Finn Coleman, The Hawkesbury Gazette Sport Story of the Year - Non-daily Sylvia Liber, Illawarra Mercury Gary Ramage, The Canberra Times News Photo of the Year - Daily Cathy Adams, Lismore City News Scott Calvin, Manning River Times (highly commended) Photo of the Year - Non-daily Adam McLean, Illawarra Mercury Adam Trafford, The Courier (highly commended) Sport Photo of the Year - Daily Rachel Simmonds, Stock & Land Agricultural Photo of the Year Justine Landis-Hanley, The Canberra Times National Video of the Year Carla Freedman, Jude Keogh and Maddy Fogarty, Central Western Daily Local Video of the Year Ayden Dawkins, national news team Best Use of Multimedia Kelly Butterworth, agricultural team Mentor of the Year Ben Doherty Production of the Year Rachel Simmonds, Stock & Land Sell of the Year Newcastle Herald, The Singleton Argus, The Maitland Mercury Newsroom Collaboration The Catch-Up, Central Western Daily Newsroom Innovation Kate McIlwain, Illawarra Mercury Sally Gall, Queensland Country Life (highly commended) Campaign of the Year Simon Walker Commercial Feature of the Year Explore Magazine of the Year Elizabeth Habermann Paid Content Campaign of the Year