How the awards process works

Journalism Awards

Headlineauto users nominate using the simple online form, those journalists who they think deserve consideration for their contribution to excellence since September 1, 2013. Shortlisting then takes place based upon the total number of votes cast for a particular journalist and a weighting matrix to ensure maximum fairness. The Shortlisted candidates are then asked to submit a selection of their work and then go forward to the final judging process, which is conducted by an independent panel of respected automotive media and PR experts.

Journalists cannot nominate themselves for individual category awards but they can nominate their colleagues.

Nominations made for journalists working on other titles and publications carry more weighting when the votes are counted. Editors are eligible to nominate their own publications for "title of the year" categories - but of course this will also be taken into account in the weighting matrix.

PR Awards

In the PR Awards, the PR Person and Rising PR Star categories are decided on a votes cast basis, with the same weighting matrix as in previous years for nominations, to ensure fairness.

Nominations for the Press Office of the Year and Best Automotive Support Agency categories will give us our Shortlist of the top five based upon most points accrued during the nomination process. We will then invite the Shortlisted PR candidates to submit, in no more than 500 words, why they deserve to win. These submissions will then be assessed by an independent panel of judges before an overall decision is made.

The Best Event for UK Media and Best International Event categories will accept nominations from journalists and add those to the events submitted by companies. The Best Use of Digital awards works in the same way.