Singapore’s Media Corp is among ten top media companies named in this year’s WAN-Ifra XMA Cross Media Awards.

The publisher’s ‘Style Living’ site earned the gong in a competition focussed this year on paid-for content apps for smartphones and tablets.

The XMAs – now in their sixth edition – honour companies that are using a wide variety of platforms including print, web, mobile and video and more, to deliver editorial and advertising content in innovative ways. They were announced on the first day of the IfraExpo and WAN-Ifra’s World Newspaper Week.

Mario Garcia, chief executive and founder of Garcia Media and an XMA juror says he was “happy and proud” to see that storytelling dominating over simply technical details or design enhancements.

“The editors, publishers and art directors seem to have made the story the protagonist. That’s a good thing, a fantastic lesson for all of us to get inspiration from,” he says.

Other prizewinners are:

- “VG+”, Verdens Gang, Norway

- “Sunday Times”, News International Newspapers, UK

- “Die Schwäbische”, Schwäbische Zeitung Online, Germany

- “Welt HD”, Axel Springer, Germany

- “RP Plus”, RP Online, Germany

- “Bloomberg Businessweek+”, Bloomberg News, USA

- “VG’s TV-Guide for iPhone, iPad”, Verdens Gang, Norway

- “Aftenposten”, Aftenposten Multimedia, Norway

- “Ekspress Pro”, Eesti Ajalehed, Estonia

An international jury comprised of multimedia specialists judged apps based on the app in its environment, consistency in design, content, integration of components, business model and overall impression.

Winning apps showed how publishers are tailoring content to reach a desired audience, readers who are willing to pay for that content. In some cases this meant a broad offer and in others very niche content, say organizers.

More including overviews of all the entries, at www.wan-ifra.org/xma