CRN wins 'Magazine of the Year' at IT Journalism Awards

CRN was crowned 'Magazine of the Year' at the Optus IT Journalism Awards in Sydney on Friday night.

In front of hundreds of the nation's top technology journalists, vendors and public relations professionals at the Crystal Ballroom in Luna Park, CRN beat out the competition to take home the award for the best print title, with editor Steven Kiernan accepting the speech on stage with the team of William Maher, Tony Yoo and newest recruit Brendon Foye.

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"We pour our hearts into the print magazine and this award makes me so proud," said Kiernan.

"The magazine forms a crucial part of our multi-faceted publishing strategy, which also spans web, email, mobile, social media and a rapidly growing events portfolio, including, of course, the annual CRN Fast50."

Kiernan also praised some of CRN's key contributors: art director Andrew Bennett and star writers Nate Cochrane and Sholto Macpherson.

But the night wasn't over yet.

Reporter Tony Yoo trumped nine other finalists to win the highly competitive 'Best New Journalist' Award, a stellar accolade after his decision to leave a career within the IT industry to become a tech journalist.

Steven Kiernan was also runner-up with a 'Highly Commended' in the category for 'Best Technology Industry Journalist', missing out to winner Caitlin Fitzsimmons from BRW.

CRN's sister title, iTnews, also had a cracker of a night in Sydney, clinching two major awards.

Fast-paced, online-only brand iTnews, which is aimed at enterprise IT buyers, won the award for 'Best News Coverage' – where it had faced stiff competition from the likes of the Australian Financial Review, SMH.com.au Technology/Digital Life and ZDNet.

Allie Coyne, news editor of iTnews and former journalist on CRN, was also named 'Best Business Technology Journalist'. 

All in all, Nextmedia's two key business IT titles, CRN and iTnews, had one of the best medal hauls of any publisher at the awards.

The Optus IT Journalism Awards are organised by media intelligence company MediaConnect.