The Quint, The Scroll and ABP win big at South Asian Digital Media Awards 2018

By
Lalita
-
179
Digital Media Awards
South Asia Digital Media 2018 award winners, Hyderabad, India

WAN-IFRA India Annual Conference made a comeback in Hyderabad this year, with over 300 publishing executives from over 25 countries, to discuss digital-first approach in newsrooms, the future of news publishing, and print media trends.

The 26th annual conference, WAN-IFRA India 2018 (26 and 27 September), is co-sponsored by The Indian Newspaper Society. The much-awaited third edition of the ‘South Asian Digital Media Awards’ was presented at the event and over 30 media organizations were awarded under 10 different categories.

“This platform is a novel way to recognize digital media initiatives by publishers from South Asia. It is heartening that participants to the 3rd South Asia Digital Media Awards of WAN-IFRA has increased by 50% to 125 this year and 30 winners have been selected,” said DD Purkayastha, managing director and chief executive officer of ABP Pte Ltd.

Recognizing best practice innovation

The awards, a joint initiative by WAN-IFRA and Google, recognize best practice innovation in digital publishing worldwide. The awards are presented in South Asia, Asia, Middle East, Africa, Europe, and Latin America. The Gold award winners will subsequently compete for the World Digital Media Awards that will be announced in Glasgow in June during the 71st World News Media Congress 2019.

This year, The Scroll won the coveted Gold award in ‘Best in News Website’ category. The Quint bagged the gold for ‘Talking Stalking’ under the ‘Best Innovation to Engage Youth Audiences’ category. The ‘Best Digital Start-Up’ saw two Silver award winners – Sakal Media Private Limited for the Agrowon App and The Hindu for Briefcase.

“The South Asian Digital Media Awards are a huge source of encouragement to the young team at The Quint, pushing us towards more meaningful journalism and better innovation in storytelling,” said Ritu Kapur, founder and chief executive officer of The Quint.

Here is a complete list of winners:

Best Branded Content Project
Gold: YoursWisely by Indian Express for Medtronic – World Hearing Day
Silver: Quintillion Media for The Quint and Madhya Pradesh Tourism
Bronze: Jang Media Group for The News HBL PSL

Best Data Visualization
Gold: NDTV Convergence for NDTV Elections
Silver: Dhaka Tribune for The hungry children of Mother Ganges
Bronze: BBC News Indian Languages for BBC India Visual Journalism team

Best Digital Marketing Campaign
Gold: ABP Pvt Ltd for AnandaUtsav 2017 Digital Campaign
Silver: The Daily Star for ‘Praner Vasha’- Mother Language Day Special
Bronze: Amarujala.com for Amar Ujala Samwad

Best Digital News Start-up
Gold: madrascourier.com (Madras Courier)
Silver: Sakal Media Private Limited (Agrowon App) and
Silver: The Hindu (Briefcase)
Bronze: Sakal Media Private Limited (Sarkarnama)

Best in Lifestyle, Sports, Entertainment Website or Mobile Services
Gold: Arré for Arré India
Silver: NDTV Convergence for Swirlster
Bronze: The Hindu Group for SportstarLive

Best in Social Media Engagement
Gold: ABP Pvt Ltd for Ebela.in 2017 Festive Song
Silver: Quintillion Media Pvt. Ltd for My Report
Bronze: BloombergQuint and Quintype for Integrating WhatsApp Communication for Business
Bronze: Mathrubhumi Printing & Publishing Co Ltd for Mathrubhumi women’s day special – addressing gender bias on social media

Best Innovation to Engage Youth Audiences
Gold: Quintillion Media Pvt. Ltd for Talking Stalking
Silver: Jang Media Group for Jang VR
Bronze: The Indian Express Group for inuth.com

Best News Website or Mobile Service
Gold: Scroll.in (Scroll.in)
Silver: BBC News Indian Languages (BBC Hindi)
Bronze: Malayala Manorama Company Ltd. (Malayala Manorama News App)

Best Reader Revenue Initiative
Gold: Swarajya and Quintype for Preserving Indic Heritage
Silver: Business Standard Private Limited for Business Standard Premium – Digital Subscriptions
Bronze: Dainik Bhaskar Digital for Autobot

Best Use of Online Video (including VR)
Gold: Scroll.in for Your Morning Fix
Silver: BBC News Indian Languages for Crossing the Sky
Bronze: Quintillion Media Pvt. Ltd for Rape is Consensual: Inside Haryana’s Rape Culture

2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India

Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.

The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry. While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.

The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.

Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.

Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.

Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.

– Naresh Khanna

Subscribe Now

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here