The News Publishers’ Association is delighted to announce the awards list for the 2026 Voyager Media Awards, recognising and rewarding exceptional news and current affairs journalism in Aotearoa.

The Awards offer a place for every journalist and for every type of journalism, celebrating the work of reporters, feature writers, columnists, cartoonists, animators, reviewers, photographers and video journalists across print, digital, audio and video, and representing the epitome of excellence.

The list of awards remains the same as in 2025, however there are some important changes to entry criteria for our four Newspaper of the Year awards, Best Newspaper Magazine and Best News, Current Affairs or Specialist Publication. From the 2026 Awards, hard copies will no longer be accepted for these six awards. Specific editions of newspapers, magazines and newspaper magazines must be supplied digitally in place of hard copies.

One more small update in the Written category: Junior Feature Writer of the Year has been renamed Best Up and Coming Feature Writer but the entry and judging criteria remains unchanged.

The full list of Categories and Awards on offer for the 2026 Voyager Media Awards is now available here.

The entry and judging criteria for all awards is also available here. Please read the criteria carefully as this has been updated for some of the awards.

The Awards will be held at the Grand Millennium Auckland, with the event to take place on Friday 22 May next year.

Entries for the 2026 Voyager Media Awards open on Friday 16 January, so start thinking about your best work from 2025 and which awards you’ll enter.

Fri 16 Jan 2026 – Entries open (10am)
Fri 20 Feb 2026 – Entries close (5pm)
March 2026 – Judging
Wed 15 Apr 2026 – Finalists announced and tickets on sale
Fri 22 May 2026 – Winners announced at a celebration at the Grand Millennium, Auckland

We are so grateful to have the continued support of our generous sponsors including:
Voyager Internet, ANZ Bank New Zealand, NZ On Air, Spark NZ, Sport NZ and Media Copyright Agency (MCA).

Without their generous support these awards would not be possible.*

Aotearoa’s national Media Awards have celebrated excellence in New Zealand journalism for 53 years. Originally known as the Qantas Press Awards, then the Canon Media Awards, Voyager Internet has been the premier sponsor since 2018. The awards are managed and promoted by the News Publishers’ Association which champions the news media industry of New Zealand.

Please direct any queries about the 2026 Voyager Media Awards to voyagermediaawards@npa.co.nz