What's outstanding about the work of The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald recognised in the Society for News Design's 'best of digital design' awards is the almost complete absence of comparable work from the region.

The Fairfax Media sites have taken five awards in the 2014 competition in a field of more than 900 entries from around the world.

Other winners in the broader Asia-Pacific are Asahi, ThePaper.cn and GulfNews.com

Three projects are nominated, along with the portfolio of Mark Stehle (for art direction and design) but it is one of these, 'And then there were none' - about Australia's endangered species - which garners most acclaim. Its team of Stehle, Felicity Lewis, Nathaneal Scott, Joe Benke, Bridie Smith and Tim Doldissen are recognised for single subject feature projects, and use of multimedia.

Stehle, Lewis, Scott, Konrad Marshall, Brendan Esposito and Doldissen are named for 'Will to win' and Stehle, Lewis, Matthew Absalom-Wong, Nino Bucci and Tom McKendrick for 'Waverider'. In the indiividual portfolios category, Stehle is recognised for art direction and design for 'Will to win', 'And then there were none', 'One more summer' and 'Flying Docs'.

The awards recognise excellence in digital design in news media and winners were announced at the Ball State University Indianapolis Center.

Fairfax executive editor - photography and presentation Matt Martel says the design team is thrilled to be honoured, being the only Australian media organisation to win this year: "We are immensely proud that the digital design features and portfolios we produce for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age mastheads are recognised among the best on offer internationally."

Rather than list the names of winning organisations - in which the New York Times, the LA Times and other North American publications figure very regularly - it has listed project names with links. Clicking through them is a time-consuming but very rewarding task.

Print winners

The 17 print newspapers in the running for SND's World's Best-Designed newspaper competition have been listed, and the winner will be announced at an SND Workshop in Washington, this April.

Chosen from more than 200 entries, they are: The Washington Post (US), Politiken (Denmark), Svenska Dagbladet (Sweden), Excelsior (Mexico), The National Post (Canada), De Morgen (Belgium), Informação (Portugal), Welt am Sonntag (Germany), The Grid (Canada), La Nacion (Argentina), Los Angeles Times (US), The Guardian (UK), Dagens Nyheter (Sweden), De Volkskrant (Netherlands), Die Welt (Germany), New York Times (US), and Folha de São Paulo (Brazil).

On our homepage: (from left) Nathaneal Scott, Matthew Absalom-Wong, Felicity Lewis, Mark Stehle and Joe Benke
Picture: Eddie Jim/Fairfax Media
Above: A cassowary illustration from 'And then there were none', a multimedia piece about Australia's endangered species