Journalists from across the KM Group were crowned winners at the Kent Press and Broadcast Awards.

It was a big day for the Kent Messenger, which was crowned Newspaper of the Year at the ceremony hosted by BBC News’ Simon McCoy at The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence in Canterbury.

Judges said: “The Kent Messenger is deep-rooted in the community and always has something to say. They also campaign and put lots of thought into the story placement.”

Adding to the paper's success, its chief reporter Guy Bell was named Print Journalist of the Year for what judges called a series of "emotive and newsworthy campaigns and exclusives".

Marijke Hall of the Kentish Gazette was highly commended in the same category thanks to her "amazing human interest stories and the way she sourced them".

KentOnline was honoured in the Kent News Website of the Year category, being highly commended for its use of multimedia and "evidence of commercial success with both revenue and audience figures rising".

Serial award-winning designer Ashley Austen added to his long list of honours by winning Front Page of the Year for his Deep Freeze cover of the Kent Messenger during this year's snow.

Kent Programme of the Year was jointly won by kmfm for its Make Someone's Christmas show.

The judges said it was "amazing, utterly compelling and a brilliant bit of local journalism".

Earlier, Medway Messenger writer Chris Hunter picked up the gong for Columnist of the Year, for his weekly must-read Mouth of Medway column.

Judges said: "Chris has a skill for picking up local stories and making people care about them. He has an individual style and the column is full of fun and variety.”

Meanwhile, KMTV reporter Keilan Webster also had big reasons to celebrate, after being named the first winner of the Neil Bell Kent Sports Journalist of the Year award, named after the late BBC journalist.

Keilan had already been highly commended in the Kent New Journalist of the Year category.

Judges said: “Keilan is a great all-rounder with a good interviewing style. He has a have-a-go attitude and highlights niche and non able-bodied sports.”

The Kent Photographer of the Year prize went to Matthew Walker for a number of images used in KM Group titles, which "have real feeling in them," according to judges.

Described as "a future star and will no doubt be on national TV in the future”, KMTV's Harry Peet was highly commended in the Kent Young Journalist of the Year category.