The Warragul and Drouin Gazette won the award for Best Digital Presence at the Victorian Country Press Association awards on Friday night.

The annual conference and awards ceremony was held in Torquay.
The Gazette was shortlisted as a finalist in four award categories - best digital presence, best sports story, best news photograph and best special publication/magazine.
The best digital presence award recognised the importance of digital innovation, community interaction, improvements and trends in audience engagement, presentation of local news content, readability, connectedness, and depth of reporting.
In response to changing technology and the increased consumption of digital media, over the past 12 months we have embarked on a digital journey to improve our reader engagement and establish new ways of reaching our audience.
We developed a digital strategy with the aim of maximising our web, social and digital presence, including the introduction of a digital newsletter.
Judge Peter Clark said The Gazette demonstrated how a co-ordinated and strategic approach to building a digital presence can yield excellent results across multiple platforms and for a variety of objectives.
"They've built an impressive digital newsletter subscriber base using multiple platforms that complement each other to drive uptake. They've also demonstrated compelling storytelling through customised content fit for each platform and the ability to amplify content across platforms," he said.
The Gazette also was highly commended in the best special publication/magazine award for its 125th souvenir edition produced for our newspaper's 125th anniversary in July last year.
Judge Josh Stephens said "the community spirit leaps off the pages of this 125th Anniversary edition."
"The support and well wishes from the majority of advertisers are proof of this masthead's enduring role within the local area. History, pride and heart are all words that come to mind when describing this edition...created with the perfect balance of editorial and advertising, including important reminders of historical events," he said.
Journalist Nicholas Duck was commended for his sports story "Cooper's Road to Recovery" while photographer Fearghus Browne also was commended in the best news photograph category for his photo "Fighting Chance" which captured the Warragul Boxing Club's struggle to find a new home.