Fairfax Media took out the award for NSW Journalist of the Year for the third year running at the Kennedy Awards for Excellence in NSW Journalism on Friday night.

Adele Ferguson received the highest accolade at the Kennedy Awards, also bringing home another three gongs for her business reporting.

Ferguson, together with the ABC's Deb Masters and Mario Christodoulou, shared the prizes for outstanding finance reporting, outstanding investigative reporting and outstanding TV current affairs.

The trio dominated the night in recognition of the joint Fairfax-ABC investigation and Four Corners' report “Banking Bad”, which revealed the extent of shoddy practices in the Commonwealth Bank's financial planning division.

Fairfax Media journalists took home awards in eight of the 33 categories in this year's awards, held at Royal Randwick's Grand Ballroom.

Other Fairfax Media winners included Tony Walters for outstanding online video, Simon Bosch for outstanding cartoon and Janie Barrett for outstanding online photographic essay.

Barrett spent more than a year capturing the emotional heartache experienced by families who care for loved ones with Alzheimer’s disease.

Bosch’s illustration, which he created following the government's first federal budget, featured two hands in the likeness of Tony Abbott, representing the Prime Minister before and after the federal election.

The former has its fingers crossed and both are depicted with speech bubbles that say “Trust us”.

Walters' video was an intimate look at the Millers Point public housing residents ahead of their eviction by the state government before it sold the harbourfront properties

The Sun-Herald’s Natalie O’Brien took home the award for outstanding reporting on the environment, for her exposé series on the state’s Environmental Protection Authority.

Fairfax Media has won NSW Journalist of the Year each year since the Kennedy Awards’ inception in 2012.

Joanne McCarthy from the Newcastle Herald took the award in 2013 for her work covering sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. In 2012 the gong went to Kate McClymont for her reports on NSW state corruption.

There were a record 430 entries submitted in this year’s Kennedy Awards.

The awards  were established in memory of respected crime reporter Les Kennedy.