When it comes to social media, Singapore Press Holdings knows where the money is.
The print and digital publisher scored two of the top three monetisation places in WAN-Ifra’s 2012 XMA Cross Media Awards, announced last week.
SPH’s ‘omy Blog Club’ was placed first and its ‘Flying High’ project third in the monetisation category, with Austrian publisher Regionalmedien second.
The 12 ‘social media stars’ – recognised for their audience engagement and large followings on Twitter, Facebook, or on other social media platforms – were honoured at a ceremony during the World Publishing Expo in Frankfurt.
New chief executive of the global publishers organisation Vincent Peyrègne said winners had demonstrated just how quickly newspapers have mastered the art of social media, and how quickly they are adapting to the rapid changes in technology, audience preferences, and multimedia news delivery.
“XMA shows again that the mission for news publishers is, and has always been, about engaging audience,” he said. “We've learned, since the emergence of social media on a broad scale, that today's internet driving force relies on technology to build audiences and gather communities around a wide range of topics.
“These winners understand the ongoing revolution in terms of audience management. Publishers must now fight for attraction and visibility in a widely open environment, while our industry used to rely mainly on a closed and controlled environment. We all understand that social media is not a substitute but a vital support to our core mission of delivering quality content to the right audience. There is a great deal to be learned and emulated here.”
Winners in the competition were:
Best community engagement– 1, Últimas Noticias - "El diario de la gente", Venezuela; 2, Presse Druck - "retter.tv", Germany; 3, WVW-Westdeutsche Verlags- und Werbegesellschaft - "Lokalkompass", Germany.
Best use of Facebook by a newspaper– 1, Guardian News & Media - "Guardian Facebook App", UK; 2, 24sata - "24sata Facebook activity", Croatia; 3, Le Parisien - "Le Parisien on Facebook", France.
Monetization– 1. Singapore Press Holdings - "omy Blog Club", Singapore; 2, Regionalmedien Austria - "Agrarmarketing Tirol – Fotogewinnspiel", Austria; 3, Singapore Press Holdings - "Flying High", Singapore.
Special projects– 1, Verdens Gang - "The 22nd of July terror attack", Norway; 2, The Times Newspapers - "The Times for the Cities Fit for Cycling campaign", UK; 3, Aftonbladet - "CreateTV for Rockbjörnen", Sweden.
The XMA Cross Media Awards, now in its seventh year, showcases the most creative examples in cross-media publishing. Full details including past winners, can be found at http://www.wan-ifra.org/microsites/xma-cross-media-awards
Pictured: omy.sg editor Chua Chim Kang (left) and assistant marketing manager Alvin Lim with the awards