The Hampshire Chronicle has scooped an array of advertising honours.

The Co-op awards, organised by the regional newspaper industry, saw daily and weekly newspapers from throughout the UK competing for honours in a range of categories.

Co-op advertising works by encouraging manufacturers and suppliers to help local traders by paying some of their advertising costs.

Louise Robertson from the Chronicle was named runner up in the Best Co-op person of the year. She said: "The Co-op advertising scheme is a really great idea as it allows small businesses to have much more creativity and flexibility when it comes to placing an advert.

"If a smaller business stocks a big named brand then often we can get the big name to help the smaller business advertise which means that a small business can afford to take out a much larger advert in the newspaper. It's also good news for the advertisers as we have a dedicated graphic designer to help with creative ideas.

"The scheme's a great idea for businesses and I was thrilled to have my hard work rewarded at the ceremony."

The Chronicle won the award for Best Use of a Co-op Advert over Four Pages for its fashion supplement, The Collection. It also won Best Co-op Sponsorship for a Marwell Zoo supplement and highly commended in five other cateogries.

And the newspaper was also named runner up in the best Co-op Centre of the year.

Hampshire Chronicle publisher and compere of the event, Paul Kinvig, said: "I am delighted that we have done so well especially as we are such a small centre compared to some of the other bigger daily newspapers we were competing against.

"It's wonderful to get recognised by the industry and the really great thing about our success is that it is repeatable for other advertisers."

The awards were sponsored by Sony UK.