It was by any measure, a very good night for News Corp Australia and its brands.

Today's News Media Awards saw News take all but three of the of 12 top and commended places honoured, with Nine's AFR Weekend named weekend news brand of the year, and NZ-based Stuff and Australian Community Media's Newcastle Herald commended in the daily and regional categories respectively.

News' Melbourne metro tabloid the Herald Sun was chosen overall winner from the four categories, having won daily news brand of the year.

The Hobart Mercury was named regional news brand and the The City (Adelaide) community news brand. Judges said while every finalist was at the top of their game, the Herald Sun had an edge with "news-breaking exclusives, its ability to service readers across all platforms and its attention to digital growth".

NewsMediaWorks chief executive Peter Miller said the calibre of entries and the "significant commitment to innovation and editorial excellence" of publishers again impressed the judging panel and made selecting winners a challenging process.

More than 350 people attended the awards dinner at the conclusion of the annual Inform 19 News Media Summit conference. The ceremony at the Ivy Ballroom in Sydney was again hosted by The Chaser's Craig Reucassel and Andrew Hansen.

Publishers from Australia, New Zealand and the Asia Pacific submitted more than 500 entries for the seven categories in the 2019 awards.

Editor-in-chief of News' Adelaide-based Messenger Newspapers won this year's Hegarty Prize - worth $10,000 - with Jenna Cairney (Townsville Bulletin) and Tyla Harrington (Shepparton News) commended. Fiona Nilsson, News DNA's lifestyle director, won the news media executive of the year award. Fleet joined News' NT News 12 years ago and is a former NT Young Journalist of the Year.

In the technical categories, Apple Daily's Hong Kong print site won the best run-of-press award, and News Corp's Townsville Print Centre was named print centre of the year.

A category for best use of print was won by the New Zealand Herald for 'They are Us', and that for best use of digital by the Adelaide Advertiser for 'The 'Tiser Fringe Adviser'. Best use of mobile was won by Stuff for 'New Zealand Made/Na Niu Tireni', which also won the innovation of the year category for 'The Homicide Report'.

For a full list of awards, visit: https://newsmediaworks.com.au/winners-from-the-2019-news-media-awards/

Pictured: The The Herald Sun's campaigning front pages uncovered the story of Lawyer X