Region shares honours in ‘young reader’ contest

The ‘South China Morning Post’ and the ‘Straits Times’ were among winners and Melbourne’s ‘The Age’ gained a special mention in this year’s WAN-Ifra ‘world young reader’ newspaper of year competition. Top prize in the annual competition organised by WAN-Ifra was ‘Metro’ in Poland, which was also top prize for public service with a widely-followed debate and educational campaign which encouraged young readers to question their attitudes towards internet piracy. The World Young Reader Prizes recognise newspaper companies that have devised the best projects and activities to promote newspaper reading and usage, on all platforms, among those under 25. Prizes were awarded in eight categories: brand, editorial, making the news, newspapers in education, public service, connecting with mobile, research-based strategies, and enduring excellence. Descriptions of the winning projects can be found at www.wan-press.org/nie/articles.php?id=2506 Poland's Metro captured the Newspaper of the Year award for a strategy that has made it a modern, nationwide daily for the young generation. Using a philosophy that WAN-Ifra calls ‘total youth think’, it has incorporated content throughout its pages that young people can use in their everyday lives. It also ties its content to events and initiatives that inspire young people to act, such as a roundtable on the future and its ‘school of trust’, which encourages openness and cooperation. Awards will be presented at the 12th WAN-IFRA Readership Conference, set for November 16-17 November in San Francisco, where several winners will describe their strategies. Details of the event can be found at www.wan-ifra.org/readership2010 The World Young Reader Prizes are supported by Norske Skog, the Norway-based global paper producer, as part of its partnership in WAN-Ifra’s Newspapers in Education development project. Winners included: - Brand: I-NEXT (India) for its ‘Health Meter’ campaign. - Enduring Excellence: Sun Sentinel (USA) for its Teenlink editorial supplement. - Making the News: Der Tagesspiegel (Germany) for its Paralympic Post youth journalist project and supplement. - Mobile: Malayala Manorama (India) for its YUVA (Connecting Youth) actions. - NIE: The Straits Times (Singapore) for ‘Straits Times Schools – Innovating the Old’ project. - Research: Akzia (Russia) for its ‘Top 50 Dream Employers’ survey and supplement. Jury Commendations - Brand: Akzia (Russia), for the Akzia.Obmennik book exchange. - Enduring Excellence: Berliner Zeitung (Germany) for its ‘Youth and School’ project. - Public Service: Avusa (Sunday Times, Sowetan, South Africa) for its Skillz Soccer and HIV Aids project and First News (United Kingdom) for its My Way! learning disabilities campaign. - Making the News: South China Morning Post (Hong Kong) for its ‘Making Headlines’ editorial contest. Special Mention - Brand: Novosti Rigionov (Russia) for its ‘Make your dreams come true’ campaign. - Editorial: Hürriyet (Turkey) for Hürriyet Kampus. - Enduring Excellence: Oppland Arbeiderblad (Norway) for its ‘Skyggerdasksjoen’ youth shadow edition, which students put together using the same sources as the main newspaper on any given day, but focused for younger readers. - NIE: The Age (Australia) for its ‘Breaking News’ special NIE resource and Reconquista (Portugal) for its ’Reconquista Weekly’ NIE support programme. The awards were judged by previous Young Reader Prize winners.