South Asian Digital Media Awards 2020 winners announced

Winners include non-profits and individual documentaries

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IPP Desk
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South asian
South Asian Digital Media Awards 2020 winners announced

The South Asian Digital Media Awards are South Asia’s most prestigious competition recognizing outstanding work done by news publishers in digital media. Announced by Wan-Ifra on 3 December 2020, the awards in their 5th annual edition celebrate The Hindu, ABP, NDTV Convergence, and TV18, Quint, and The Daily Star among the top winners. Significantly the winners include non-profits and smaller organizations such as the People’s Archive of Rural India and People Like Us Create. Individual documentary makers such as Faye D’Souza are also recognized.

The awards recognize news publishers who have adopted digital media and mobile strategies as part of their total product offering to meet the challenges in how people consume news and information today. “When it comes to success in digital news publishing, innovation, on top of quality content, is the key,” said Magdoom Mohamed, managing director, Wan-Ifra South Asia. “This was what was reflected in the winning entries of the 5th annual South Asian Digital Media Awards 2020 presented by Wan-Ifra.”

The South Asian Digital Media Awards cover ten different categories, including – Best Website, Audience Engagement, Native Advertising / Branded Content, Paid Content Strategy, News Literacy, and Covid-19 Projects. Twenty judges from across the globe evaluated the entries and selected winners. The winners will be presented trophies and honored virtually at the upcoming Digital Media India 2021 Conference from 2 to 4 March.

The winners of the regional awards compete for the World Digital Media Awards, competing with other winners from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and North America. Wan-Ifra will announce the world award winners next year.

The 2020 winners are –

Best News Website or Mobile Service
Gold : Manoramaonline.com, Malayala Manorama Co. Ltd
Silver : NDTV.com, NDTV Convergence
Bronze : The Telegraph, ABP Pvt. Ltd.

Best Data Visualization
Gold : The Federal – Perseverance Mars Mission 2020
Silver : NDTV Convergence – Coronavirus Insightful Graphics
Bronze : BBC News – Every medal won by Indian sportswomen
Bronze : The Mathrubhumi Printing & Publishing Co Ltd – Air quality in Kerala cities during COVID-19 lockdown

Best in Audience Engagement
Gold : ABP Pvt. Ltd. – ABP Education
Silver : The Quint – Last messages from Galwan
Silver : The Hindu – #KeepTheHabit
Bronze : The Daily Star – Bondhutte Bondi (Locked in Friendship)

Best in Lifestyle, Sports, Entertainment Website or Mobile Services
Gold : The Hindu – Sportstar
Silver : NDTV Convergence – Visual stories
Best Marketing Campaign for News Brand
Gold : ABP Pvt. Ltd. – ABP Education

Best Native Advertising / Branded Content Campaign
Gold : The Hindu – #KeepTheHabit
Silver : M M Publications Limited (Vanitha) – Campaign for Go Colors
Bronze : The Quint – MG Motor #ChangeWhatYouCan

Best Paid Content Strategy (including pay wall, membership or crowd funding models)
Gold : BQ Blue – BloombergQuint (Quintillion Business Media Pvt Ltd)
Silver : The Hindu

Best Project for News Literacy
Gold : TV18 Broadcast Limited – Surprise Test
Silver : TV18 Broadcast Limited – Crux Files
Bronze : ETV Bharat

Best Special Project for Covid-19
Gold : The Daily Star – Mission Save Bangladesh
Silver : People’s Archive of Rural India – Covering the human cost of COVID-19
Bronze : People Like Us Create (Pluc) – The COVID Hero Project

Best Use of Online Video (including VR)
Gold : BBC News – Journey of Women’s rights in India
Silver : People Like Us Create (Pluc) – Digital Divide
Bronze : Faye D’Souza – Inside KEM Hospital
The details of the awards and the winners (Hall of Fame) of the previous year are available online at
www.wan-ifra.org/sdma.

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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