Herald & Times staff have secured 25 entries in the short-list for this year's Scottish Press Awards, the highest number of any publisher.

Among the entries to reach the final round of judging are HeraldScotland for our revamped subscription service, the only one operated by a regional news site anywhere in the UK. It's listed in the Innovation of the Year category, where we'll be vying with the Sunday Herald's Life App.

Elsewhere, competing for the highly acclaimed Reporter of the Year are the Herald's Gerry Braiden and Helen Puttick; Helen is also listed for Scoop of the Year with "Scots Doctor: I Helped My Patients Kill Themselves."

Other categories to feature Herald & Times staff are:

Front Page - Sunday Herald ("At Last"), Evening Times ("Copter Carnage")

Sports Feature Writer - Hugh MacDonald, Susan Swarbrick

Feature Writer - David Pratt

Financial/Business - Simon Bain, Greig Cameron, Ian McConnell, Steven Vass

Columnist - Ian Bell, Janice Bell (Evening Times)

Political - Paul Hutcheon

Interviewer - Alison Rowat

Arts/entertainment - Neil Mackay, Phil Miller, Alan Morrison

Young journalist - Ben Riley-Smith

Cartoonist - Steven Camley

News Photographer - Gordon Terris

Sports Photographer - Nick Ponty

The Scottish Press Awards, organised by the Scottish Newspaper Society (SNS), are the premier awards for the industry in Scotland. Winners of all 21 categories in the 35th annual awards will be revealed at a ceremony in the Radisson Blu Glasgow on Thursday 24 April.

SNS Editors' Committee Chairman and editor of The Press and Journal, Damien Bates, said: "The standard of Scottish journalism is of an exceptionally high level, and you only need to look at the shortlist to see the calibre of this year's entrants. During an exceptionally important year for our nation, there is an undoubted renaissance in the newspaper industry in Scotland and we should be justly proud of everything that these awards represent. The decision-making to select the winners has never been tougher!"

Sponsors of the event include; National Express, Clydesdale Bank, Diageo, Johnnie Walker, VisitScotland, Scotch Whisky Association, 3x1 Public Relations, Radisson Blu Hotels & Resorts, Event Consultants Scotland, VisionEvents, and The Big Partnership.