The Westmorland Gazette was named joint winner of the newspaper of the year category at a glittering ceremony in Manchester.

Around 500 representatives from media organisations across the North West gathered at the Palace Hotel on Oxford Road for the event, organised by How-Do, whose website provides news, opinion and resources for those working in all aspects of media in the North West.

The category won by The Westmorland Gazette was for all newspapers in the region, including daily, weekly and other titles.

Judges said they were impressed by the Gazette’s decision to change to a compact format in August last year, to alter the publication day from Friday to Thursday and the major marketing campaign which accompanied the moves.

Senior content editor Andrew Thomas accepted a glass trophy on behalf of the newspaper from one of the judges Philip Graf, the former chief executive of Trinity Mirror and now deputy chairman of Ofcom.

The other joint winner was Crains Manchester Business.

BBC Radio Cumbria was highly commended in the Radio Station of the year category.

The event was streamed live on the internet.