Around the ballroom of the Hong Kong Shangri-La hotel, collections of spiky transparent awards assembled as Asia’s top performing news publishing groups were recognised.

I found myself sitting opposite five staffers from Malaysia’s Star Publications, who amassed a total of four awards, and their haul was by no means the night’s best. Local hero, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post was another with four awards to collect, but the evening’s star, not unusually, was Singapore Press Holdings with nine awards to take home.

Some 29 judges from international media companies assessed entries to select the 45 winners honoured at the gala dinner during the Publish Asia conference in Hong Kong.

The conference continues today (Friday) with four streams and a joint wrap covering audience angagement and trends from organizer WAN-Ifra’s Shaping the future of news publishing programme.

Winners were:

Best in print (over 150,000 copies): gold– Apple Daily Publication Development, Taiwan for Apple Daily (Taiwan); silver– Singapore Press Holdings for Lianhe Zaobao, and Singapore Press Holdings for The Straits Times (two awards); bronze– Apple Daily Printing for Apple Daily (Hong Kong), and HT Media for Hindustan Times (two awards).

Best in print (below 150,000 copies): gold– United Printing & Publishing for Al Ittihad; silver– Singapore Press Holdings for Berita Harian; bronze– Al Nisr Publishing for Gulf News.

Best in design, newspaper overall design: gold–­ South China Morning Post Publishers for South China Morning Post; silver– Al Nisr Publishing for Shams 1 a step towards energy security; bronze– The Indian Express for The Financial Express.

Magazine overall design: gold– SPH Magazines for Peak April 2013; silver– Mongoose Publishing for Esquire Malaysia; bronze– Singapore Press Holdings for ZbBz.

Newspaper front page: gold– The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) for BH [Berita Harian]; silver– Jawa Pos Koran for Indonesia di Tangan Pemuda; bronze– Al Nisr Publishing for We got it.

Magazine cover: gold– Mongoose Publishing for Esquire Malaysia; silver– Ming Pao Enterprise Corporation for Ming Pao Weekly; bronze– Tempo Inti Media Daily for Majalah Tempo.

Editorial content, newspaper breaking news article: gold– Star Publications (Malaysia) for The Rape of Cameron Highlands; silver– Singapore Press Holdings for The Straits Times Foreign Desk; bronze– Star Publications (Malaysia) for The Star.

Newspaper feature article: gold– Singapore Press Holdings for Kor Kian Beng and Ho Ai Li; silver– Post Media Co. for Big Biz Using Tiny Hands; bronze– HT Media for My India My Vote 2013.

Best in online infographics, newspaper infographics: gold– Muscat Press and Publishing House for Times of Oman; silver– South China Morning Post Publishers for South China Morning Post; bronze– South China Morning Post Publishers for South China Morning Post.

Magazine infographics: gold– Muscat Press and Publishing House for Times of Oman’s Thursday Magazine; silver– Muscat Press and Publishing House for Hi Weekly; bronze– Business Media Pvt for Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner.

Best in newspaper marketing: gold– Kasturi & Sons for The Hindu - 'We've Changed with You'; silver– Jagran Prakashan for Dainik Jagran; bronze– Kasturi & Sons for The Hindu - 'Behave Yourself, India'.

Best in community service: gold– Gaya Favorit Press for Wanita Wirausaha (Woman Entrepreneurship); silver– The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) for Titipan Kasih Harian Metro; bronze– Star Publications (Malaysia) for Do Good Volunteer 2.0.

Best in photojournalism, news photography: gold– Jawa Pos Koran for Banjir Pakal; silver– Post Media for Stung Meanchey Riot; bronze– Kompas Media Nusantara for Jakarta Tak Berdaya.

Feature photography: gold– Singapore Press Holdings for The Straits Times - Alphonsus Chern; silver– South China Morning Post Publishers for South China Morning Post; bronze– Malayala Manorama Company for The Week.

Sports photography: gold– Malayala Manorama Company for Malayala Manorama; silver– The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) for The New Straits Times Press; bronze– Star Publications (Malaysia) for Star Publications.

Pictured right: Jawa Post president director Azrul Ananda (right) took the winner’s picture after congratulating photographer Dipta Wahyu

On our homepage: With chief executive Wong Chun Wai (centre) are Star Publications’ winning team of (from left) assistant chief photographer Glenn Guan, associate editor T. Selva, reporters Isabelle Lai and P Aruna, and senior corporate affairs executive Selina Ng