Wan-Ifra India 2017 opened in Chennai invoking news publishers to come together and support each other in the face of the serious challenges to press freedom and quality journalism. The event, attended by over 425 media professionals, applauded the award winners of the second edition of South Asian Digital Media Awards 2017.
The awards were presented on 13 September at Wan-Ifra India 2017, the 25th annual silver jubilee conference held in Chennai. A joint initiative by Wan-Ifra and Google, the awards recognize best practice innovation in digital publishing worldwide. The awards are presented in every region—South Asia, Asia, Middle East, Africa, Europe and Latin America—and winners from each region subsequently compete for the World Digital Media Awards, which will be announced in Berlin on 10 October during the World Publishing Expo & Digital Content Expo, IFRA/DCX.
This year’s winners were awarded in ten different categories, which included Best News Website, Best Lifestyle, Sports or Entertainment Website, Best Use of Online Video, Best Data Visualization, Best News Mobile Service, Best Lifestyle, Sports or Entertainment Mobile Service, Best Innovation New Product, Best Social Media Engagement, Best Digital Advertising Campaign, and Best Innovation to Engage Young Audience.
The Hindu secured the coveted gold award for ‘Best News Website’ while The Quint won silver and NDTV the bronze award. This year also had the introduction of the new category ‘Best Innovation to Engage Youth Audience’ which is a take from Wan-Ifra previous ‘World Young Reader Prize’ and The Hindu won the coveted ‘Gold’ in this category. The gold and silver awards for ‘Best Lifestyle, Sports or Entertainment Website’ went to Arre.com and Sportstarlive.com, respectively. The Quint had an evening to rejoice as it also won the gold and silver awards for ‘Best Use of Online Video (including VR)’ for its ‘Mannequin Challenge’ and ‘Acid: The story of a beautiful woman.’ The bronze award in this category went to Aajtak.in. The complete list of awards is as follows:
Best Data Visualization
Gold: The Quint – Ganga clean up report
Silver: Pakistan Herald Publications – Banned outfits in Pakistan openly operate in Facebook
Bronze: Pakistan Herald Publications – A Pakistani woman’s workplace dilemma
Best News Mobile Service
Gold: NDTV Convergence
Silver: The Times of India App
Bronze: Malayala Manorama
Best Lifestyle, Sports or Entertainment Mobile Service
Silver: Times Internet Ltd. – World Travel Guide App
Best Innovation New Product
Gold: The Quint – IPL2017 Microsite
Silver: Jang Media Group – Jang Real
Bronze: Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. – The citizen reporter mobile App
Best Social Media Engagement
Gold: The Daily Star – A Mother’s Day Special
Silver: eSakal.com
Bronze: Mathrubhumi ClubFM94.3 – April Fool’s Day
Bronze: NDTV Convergence
Best Digital Advertising Campaign (including Branded Content)
Gold: The Daily Star – Rise High Bangladesh
Bronze: Mathrubhumi.com – Milma Project
Best Innovation to Engage Young Audience
Gold: The Hindu – Young World Club
Silver: NDTV – Dettol Banega Swachh India
Bronze: Mathrubhumi – Silver Bullet Learning Solutions
