Leeds United fan wins Yorkshire Evening Post journalism prize for football fan site

Leeds Trinity University student Ed McIntyre scooped the top gong in the YEP's annual digital awards scheme, run in partnership with the university, which aims to shine a light on the best examples of budding student journalism in Leeds.

The scheme, which runs every year, saw Ed picked as the winner for his Leeds United fan site, All Things Leeds.

The site contains more than 70 podcast episodes as well as interviews with fellow journalists and former players.

The prize was judged based on local relevance to a Leeds audience, with strong interest, engagement on social media and aesthetics.

Ed took part in a work placement with the Yorkshire Evening Post after his win and published content including Leeds United fans in awe of 'classy' Diego Llorente after crunching tackle on Cristiano Ronaldo in Spain v Portugal clashand Leeds United youth player Charlie Allen named in prestigious list of best youngsters in the Premier LeagueEd told the Yorkshire Evening Post: "I've always been a big fan of sports, particularly football, and I've always wanted to be a sports reporter and commentator since I was a kid.

"I would always pretend to be the commentator while playing FIFA video games, always talk about sports with friends, sports have just always been a passion of mine. I was also a fan of radio growing up, and so I guess I wanted to try and combine the two, both sport and radio.

"However, I didn't really know what route to go down. When it was time for me to leave school, I was planning on going to sixth form, however, one of my friends had applied for a journalism course at Leeds City College and as soon as I heard about that course I applied straight away, got in, and my journalism path and passion all started from there really.

"The course taught me a lot and it was really fun, and I knew from the moment I started the course that I wanted to be a journalist."

"When the email had come through saying that I had won the prize for my website All Things Leeds, it was an amazing surprise, especially after what has been a tough five months or so due to Coronavirus.

"I was absolutely ecstatic. Winning this showed me that hard work really does pay off. It feels good to receive positive feedback for something I've worked so hard on and it really gave me a big boost in confidence.

"I wouldn't have been able to win this award all by myself though, so I'd like to say a big thank you to my podcast co-host Charles Foster, Jonny Chick who contributed to the website blog, and everyone who came onto the podcasts and everyone I was able to interview, and of course a big thank you to everyone who follows us, the support is very much appreciated."

Student Kamile Bantye won runner-up for her local news site, The Morley Times.

Leeds Trinity lecturer Rebecca Whittington said: "It’s brilliant to see that despite the challenges of this year, our students are still producing top quality local journalism online. Thank you so much to the YEP for continuing recognise the efforts of our students – this prize is a fantastic accolade for Ed and Kamile and we wish them all the very best for their future careers in journalism."

Alex Evans, Head of Live News at the Yorkshire Evening Post and Yorkshire Post, said: “Ed's submission showed a lot of creativity and hard graft. He put together the most content rich website of the lot, populated with well sourced, smartly edited video and podcast content in a neatly designed site with a good UI.

"There are more than 70 episodes of his podcast and some impressive interviewees. As well as the video and podcast content, Ed showed off his sports writing talents with pieces such as the interview with the 'Burley Banksy', and chats with former players alongside match previews and transfer news. The site is engaging and highly relevant to our local audience and it also makes good use of social media, integrating a YouTube channel, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.”