The Association of Online Publishers (AOP) celebrated its 24th Awards last week, honouring some of the digital publishing industry’s top talent at the in-person ceremony, held at Old Billingsgate in London.
AOP’s flagship event was hosted by comedian Aurie Styla and recognised the individuals, teams and companies driving the growth and innovation of the digital publishing sector. With categories judged by a panel of digital industry experts, under the guidance of co-chairs Jacqui Merrington, executive editor at The Independent and Chris Cannon, managing director at TechFinitive, there were 26 category winners across Individual, Team, Publishing and Grand Prix categories, and 16 highly commended entries.
Notably, William Reed won Best Digital Publishing Company, in acknowledgement of the business’ outstanding work reviewing and evolving its operations, achieving both incredible business outcomes and impressive staff engagement, despite working within a highly challenging B2B landscape, says AOP.
“The 2026 AOP Awards highlighted the resilience of our industry and our ability to harness the challenges we face to spark extraordinary innovation,” comments Richard Reeves, managing director at AOP. “The variety of winners and highly commended entries is something to be proud of, and I’m thrilled we continue to be able to celebrate the people, teams and businesses powering our industry.”
Among the other winners on the night was Katie Jones of Farmers Guardian, who took home the Editor of the Year accolade, Gordon Rayner of The Telegraph, who won Journalist of the Year, and William Reed’s Bethany Walker, who won the Rising Star award. Immediate also celebrated multiple wins in the AOP Employer Excellence, AOP Publishing Innovation Award: Audiences and Best Research / Insight Project categories.
The full list of winners is as follows:
INDIVIDUAL EXCELLENCE AWARDS
EDITOR OF THE YEAR
Winner: Katie Jones, Farmers Guardian, entered by Agriconnect (Arc Europe)
Highly commended: Chris Lancaster, entered by The Telegraph
JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR
Winner: Gordon Rayner, entered by The Telegraph
Highly commended: Hayley Dixon, entered by The Telegraph
RISING STAR
Winner: Bethany Walker, entered by William Reed
Highly commended: Armando Abdyli, entered by The Telegraph
Highly commended: Mariam Shubitidze, entered by The Telegraph
SALES PERSON OF THE YEAR
Winner: Amber Neary, entered by Times Media
Highly commended: Dan Maton, entered by The Telegraph
THE AOP AWARD FOR INSPIRING LOCAL JOURNALISM
, sponsored by Google News InitiativeWinner: Ezekiel Bertrand, entered by Newsquest
Highly commended: Kumail Jaffer, entered by Reach PLC
TEAM EXCELLENCE AWARDS
ADVERTISING OPERATIONS TEAM OF THE YEAR, Sponsored by Index Exchange
Winner: The Telegraph
Highly commended: GB News
AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT TEAM OF THE YEAR, sponsored by UKOM
Winner: The Telegraph
COMMERCIAL TEAM OF THE YEAR, sponsored by Utiq
Winner: Automotive Studio: From Creative Solutions To Creative Agency, entered by Haymarket Media Group
Highly commended: The Telegraph
EDITORIAL TEAM OF THE YEAR: B2B
Winner: RAIL, entered by Bauer Media
Highly commended: ENDS Report, entered by Haymarket Media Group
EDITORIAL TEAM OF THE YEAR: CONSUMER
Winner: Manchester Evening News
Highly commended: GB News
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT TEAM OF THE YEAR, sponsored by Mantis
Winner: Revenue Operations Team, entered by Financial Times
Highly commended: Product & Digital Team, entered by Real Deals Media
PUBLISHING EXCELLENCE AWARDS
BEST CREATIVE SOLUTIONS LED / CONTENT MARKETING CAMPAIGN
Winner: Telegraph Puzzles Joined Netflix’s Thursday Murder Club, entered by The Telegraph | iProspect | Netflix
Highly commended: Dezeen x ASUS: Design You Can Feel, entered by Dezeen
BEST MEDIA TECHNOLOGY PARTNER: AUDIENCES
Winner: How Utiq Solved The Programmatic Guaranteed Frequency Problem For Publishers, entered by Utiq
BEST MEDIA TECHNOLOGY PARTNER: REVENUES
Winner: Authoring The Future: Scaling Curation And Revenue Through Google Ad Manager, entered by Google
BEST PUBLISHER-LED SOCIAL GOOD INITIATIVE OR CAMPAIGN
Winner: The Sun & Tesco: Cooking For All, entered by The Sun
BEST RESEARCH / INSIGHT PROJECT
Winner: Understanding Why Audiences Choose What To Watch: Turning Audience Motivation Into Advertiser Strategy, entered by Immediate
BEST USE OF AUDIO
Winner: Ukraine: The Latest, entered by The Telegraph
Highly commended: The Next Five Podcast, entered by Financial Times
BEST VIDEO STRATEGY
Winner: New Scientist
THE AOP EMPLOYER EXCELLENCE AWARD, sponsored by Lewis Silkin
Winner: IM, entered by Immediate
THE AOP PUBLISHING BUSINESS EFFECTIVENESS AWARD
Winner: From Silos To System: How Collaboration And AI Delivered Significant Growth, entered by William Reed
THE AOP PUBLISHING INNOVATION AWARD: AUDIENCES
Winner: Good Health By Good Food, entered by Immediate
Highly commended: Mantis Scribe, entered by Reach PLC
Highly commended: Times Holidays, entered by Times Media
THE AOP PUBLISHING INNOVATION AWARD: REVENUES, sponsored by Google
Winner: In Journey Video Ads, entered by Citymapper
GRAND PRIX AWARDS
BEST ONLINE BRAND: B2B
Winner: Campaign, entered by Haymarket Media Group
BEST ONLINE BRAND: CONSUMER
Winner: Rock Sound, entered by whynow
Highly commended: The Sun
SMALL DIGITAL PUBLISHER OF THE YEAR, sponsored by Deloitte
Winner: SoPublishing
BEST DIGITAL PUBLISHING COMPANY 2026
Winner: William Reed
Keep up-to-date with publishing news: sign up here for InPubWeekly, our free weekly e-newsletter.
