Newspaper & Mailroom
WAN-IFRA presents Asias best publications
Monday 28. September 2009 - 8th Annual Asia Media Awards 2009, held in conjunction with Publish Asia and IFRA Expo India in Chennai, India
WAN-IFRA, the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers has presented today the winners of the 8th Asia Media Awards at its annual gala dinner held at Le Royal Meridien, Chennai, India.
The prestigious ceremony was celebrated in India for the first time, in conjunction with Publish Asia and IFRA Expo India 09 (www.publishasia.com).
N. Murali, Managing Director of The Hindu, India, opened yesterday the joint celebration of WAN-IFRAs flagship events for Asia Pacific and India which were exceptionally held jointly this year.
The Asia Media Awards aims to promote the highest publishing standards in Asia and the Middle-East. Hundreds of newspapers and magazines from these regions have taken part in the competition over the past eight years.
With a total of 472 entries this year, the Asia Media Awards 8th edition demonstrates the resilience of the Asian media industry that, even in the midst of the economic crisis, persists in pursuing publishing excellence in the fields of printing quality, design, infographics, photography, online and cross media operations.
Benefiting from a feel-good factor resurgence in the Asian economy, the Publish Asia and IFRA India convention has also exceeded all expectations by gathering this year over 600 delegates at its four parallel conferences aimed at specific target groups – CEOs, CTOs, Production Heads and Circulation Executives.
Likewise, more than 50 exhibiting suppliers of the newspaper industry are presenting their latest products and innovations at IFRA Expo India which, in its second edition, has become the worlds second-largest show for the newspaper industry.
WAN-IFRA Asia Media Awards jury panel included this year eight outstanding personalities from the print media industry:
– Bernd Beuermann, a photographer and image optimization consultant, former Head of the “imaging” department of daily newspaper Goettinger Tageblatt, Germany;
– Cheong Yip Seng, the former Editor in Chief of Singapore Press Holdings newspapers;
– Ryuichi Hirokawa, one of Japans most famous photojournalist, film director and the editor of photography magazine Days Japan; – – Karl Gude, professor of Visual Communication at the Michigan State University, USA, and the former director of information graphics at Newsweek magazine;
– Peter Ong, a newspaper consultant based in Sydney, Australia, who has re-designed newspapers and magazines in more than 10 countries;
– Dietmar Schantin, WAN-IFRAs Group Director for Editorial, Advertising and General Management;
– Mike Van Niekerk, editor in chief for Online at Fairfax Media, Australia;
– Alfred Yaghobzadeh, an awarded photographer from the famous Sipa Press agency based in Paris, France.
As part of its objective to encourage better journalism in print and online, WAN-IFRA constantly introduces new Asia Media Awards categories.
The “Best in Cross Media Award,” which honours a newspapers ability to offer added value to its readers/users and advertisers through publishing or advertising on several media channels, is one of this years most outstanding new features.
A summary of all the competition categories is listed below:
1. Best in Print Award
The Best in Print awards are presented to newspapers deserving recognition for their excellence in standardised printing. The focus of the award is to show the ability of newspapers to print consistently high quality in accordance with international standards (ISO 12647).
1.A Weekday circulation below 150k
1.B Weekday circulation over 150k
2. Best in Design Award
This award is presented to entries whose overall design, originality and content have achieved levels of excellence deserving of recognition. Entries are judged not only on design but on how design is used to project the contents.
2.A Newspaper Overall Design
2.B Magazine Overall Design
2.C Newspaper Front Page Design
2.D Magazine Cover Design
3. Best in Infographics Award/Special Coverage Award
3.A Newspaper Infographics
This award aims to recognise excellence in design, usefulness and clarity of information conveyed in both breaking news and non-breaking news in newspaper infographics.
3.B Newspaper Special Section
3.C Magazine Special Issue
These awards recognise newspapers special sections/magazines special issues that demonstrate high standards of content, originality to explore a topic or issue of significance, overall design and photography.
4. Best in Photojournalism Award
The award recognises the photographers visual creativity (originality of perception and treatment), its ability to expand knowledge or understanding of an issue through an effective use of its medium and its technical skills.
4.A News Photography
4.B Feature Photography
4.C Sports Photography
5. Best in Online Media
This award recognises publishers who have adopted digital media, beyond print, as part of their total product offer to meet the major changes in how people consume news and information.
5.A Newspaper Website
5.B Magazine Website (NEW)
6. Best in Cross Media (NEW)
Entries for this award should demonstrate an effective use of each media platforms specificity as well as a coherent management of their complementarities for serving the readers and advertisers with the best media experience possible.
6.A Cross Media editorial coverage
6.B Cross media advertising
A list of IFRA Asia Media Awards 2009 winners is attached.