WAN-IFRA Print Innovation Awards 2019 winners announced

Innovation in newspaper and magazine

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IFRA
WAN-IFRA Print Innovation Award 2018

The World Printers Forum, the print community of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), has announced the winners of the Print Innovation Awards 2019. The prize for innovation in newspapers and magazines will be presented on the first exhibition day of the IFRA World Publishing Expo on 8 and 9 October 2019, in Berlin.

The Print Innovation Awards honors the most innovative print products and services worldwide. The competition is open to newspaper and magazine publishers as well as advertisers or advertising agencies.

Because innovation in the publishing industry is not confined to digital, the World Printers Forum launched the Print Innovation Awards in the beginning of 2018, to reward excellence in print innovation. For its second edition, 61 projects from 23 countries participated in the competition. The jury, composed of World Printers Forum Board members, evaluated the entries and awarded gold, silver and bronze prizes in seven categories.

Judges score each entry based on the outlined criteria. All jury scores were combined to create an overall score for each entry. The highest scoring entries determined the category winners. Judging criteria included innovation, creativity, excellence, customer/consumer relevancy and value.

Gold, silver and bronze winners will be honored on stage at the Berlin Publishing Night of IFRA World Publishing Expo 2019 in Berlin on 8 October 2019.

Bennett Coleman and Company, The Times Group, Mumbai, won the gold and silver award for Product Innovation for its projects ‘Coloring our imagination’ and ‘XL reverse flap,’ respectively. DB Corp, Noida, won the bronze prize in the same category for its ‘Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel Panorama.’

El Tiempo casa editorial, Bogotá, Columbia, won the gold prize for its project ‘Jumbito’ in the category Advertising Innovation. Ekstra Bladet, Copenhagen, Denmark, won the silver for its ‘A controversial election campaign’ in the same category while Mail Metro Media, London, won a bronze for ‘Metro’s musical cover wrap.’

In the Special Edition category, Die Presse, Vienna, Austria, was conferred gold for its The newspaper as a puzzle adventure, DB Corp won silver and bronze prize for Women Bhaskar and 3D Jodhpur Edition, respectively.

DB Corp won a gold prize for Yougle, 24sata, Zagreb, Croatia, won a silver for JoomBoos magazine – from Cringe to Lit and Presse-Druck- und Verlags GmbH, Augsburg, Germany for its CAPITO-magazine for kids in and around Augsburg in the category Products for Young Readers.

Malayala Manorama, Kottayam, India, won silver and bronze prizes for its QR code and Mini Farm-Manorama Weekly and ‘Manorama Go Green’ and ‘News Box’ campaign in the Business Innovation category.

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

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