WAN-IFRA says the Digital Media Awards is an annual celebration of European news publishers whose initiatives boast a high standard of innovation and knowledge of the needs of their audiences. Now in their 16th year, they have announced this year's winners.
Each of these projects is exceptional in its creativity and execution and shows an impressive dedication to delivering the very best for their audiences, WAN-IFRA added, from remarkable cases of engagement strategies to inventive and comprehensive displays of complex data.
The nine winners of the nine categories are now automatically entered into the next level to compete head-to-head with the winners from WAN-IFRA’s other regional awards for the title of Digital Media World Award Winner 2023.
The 2023 winners are:
BEST DATA VISUALISATION
VG’s Energy Crisis Monitor, Verdens Gang (VG), Norway.
The topic of increasing electricity prices in Norway was one of the most important stories for readers in 2022. As the leading news provider in Norway with a long history of making data-driven services, Verdens Gang (VG) took the role of making the most extensive site covering the energy market in Norway. Their service launched in January 2022, along with several in-depth feature stories.
The site features daily prices – hour by hour – for every municipality in Norway. Their electricity tracker had more than 11 million page views in 2022. More than 10% of the views came from Google – making it their most successful SEO article of the year. This is an ongoing project continuously evolving with new statistics.
BEST IN AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT
How a birthday party in Minecraft massively impact engagement, brand awareness and sales, Schibsted Norge AS, Norway.
Aftenposten Junior is the only newspaper for children in Norway, with solid coverage within the target group since its first publication in 2012. But increasing competition from digital media has made engaging readers and maintaining a high readership more difficult.
In 2022, Aftenposten was determined to celebrate Aftenposten Junior's 10th anniversary in a way that would boost brand awareness, engagement and sales. They chose to create their own universe in Minecraft, a popular online game, and invite children to a birthday party unlike any other. The event was brand coherent, highly relevant to their target group and on the children's turf and terms.
Not only did Aftenposten increase engagement with their young readers, but they also managed to get attention and recognition from their parents. It resulted in boosted brand awareness, reader engagement and subscription sales. Aftenposten engaged 1,708 unique users, sold a total of 1,623 subscriptions, and reached an all-time high number of sales from social media. This was a 57% increase in sales compared to an equal campaign during the same period in 2021.
BEST NEWS WEBSITE
A sports news site for the TikTok Generation, Relevo, Spain.
Launching a sports news brand for Gen Z and Millennials disconnected from traditional media requires understanding the rules and formats they have learned through years of social media use.
In 2022, the Spanish group Vocento launched Relevo, a website for young sports fans, with a commitment to users and constant innovation as its central values. Staying true to these goals, and after researching users' unmet needs, the team, deliberating collaboratively in a series of sprints, took two bold steps: Making the home page look and feel like a TikTok feed and offering a straightforward and clean article design, free from distractions such as intrusive ads or annoying content offerings.
The goal was to serve Spanish-speaking sports fans with a differential editorial product in a crowded but undistinguishable market.
As a result, Relevo successfully established itself as one of the most original and innovative sports news brands in the Spanish market. User engagement included 77% of users swiping down to watch more headlines versus the 50% average user drop-off rate on standard news.
BEST USE OF VIDEO
Paint your heroes: Original multimedia content to support the rise of women's football, Relevo, Spain.
Women's football (or 'futfem', as it is called in Spanish) is on the rise, but there is still a long fight ahead for true recognition and respect. For Relevo, the sports news brand launched by Vocento in 2022, women's football is critical in its strategy, aimed at Gen Z and Millennials tired of traditional sports coverage.
Relevo's goal is to promote inclusiveness and equity in sports coverage in Spain. By distributing original multimedia content based on the Spanish national squad through social networks, Relevo raised awareness about the upcoming futfem revolution and established itself as an innovative sports brand.
Three out of the four components of their content strategy were video-based, combining live and on-demand content for maximum impact: An emotional video message from the former squad's captain (Instagram / Twitter / TikTok); a series of custom-made urban art portraits of every player in the squad (Instagram / Twitter / TikTok); a daily live video from the tournament (exclusive for Twitch), as well as a weekly live video analysis (exclusive for TikTok).
The campaign was successful in terms of views and increased engagement in TikTok, Twitter and Instagram. It also firmly established Relevo as the incumbent medium for women's football coverage among top sports news brands in Spain.
BEST DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION INITIATIVE
Omni Mer, Omni, Sweden.
The Swedish news app Omni has been developed from the start based on in-depth studies of Swedish news consumers and their problems and needs. Through a long series of breakfast conversations, their behaviours and needs were mapped, and then the first version of Omni was developed with readers constantly present in the process. It then went deep into the minds of their readers to understand their frustrations and needs, and developed an entirely new product in collaboration with them.
The result is both an innovation and a huge commercial success: Omni’s new freemium service Omni Mer (”Omni More”) launched in February 2022. It consists of four parts, each of which are innovative product and business solutions: Facts and explanations, in-depth reading, ad-free reading, and a smart paywall solution.
Omni Mer has become a great success, both commercially and in terms of the extremely positive reception among users. It currently has 16,200 members who have read over 4 million Omni Mer deep dives. In addition, Omni Mer has opened up paid access to more than 20,000 different international premium articles.
BEST NEWSLETTER
Inside Politics, Financial Times, UK.
Inside Politics, the Financial Times's weekday morning newsletter from Stephen Bush, launched during a political year like no other. First, they started 2022 unpicking the madness from Partygate, rolling Brexit disputes and a flurry of Tory sleaze scandals which eventually cost Boris Johnson his premiership. Then, as the cost of living crisis deepened, Liz Truss launched an economics experiment, wiping £300bn off the UK stock market. Stephen, an award-winning journalist and former political editor of the New Statesman, treats each plot line with sparkling flair and humour, updating readers on what just happened and why it matters.
Every day, he also strives to brighten people's inboxes with a short commentary on books, recipes, music and films – a feature that has proved hugely popular with readers (who regularly share their suggestions in turn).
Inside Politics is read at the highest levels of Downing Street and across Whitehall and brings the latest intelligence from insider sources to our readers and the top stories from the FT's global network of reporters. Of its more than 21,000 subscribers (a list that has more than doubled since May, when Stephen began writing the newsletter), 41 per cent regularly open the newsletter, and two-thirds rate it five out of five.
BEST PODCAST
The Indo Daily, Irish Independent, Ireland.
For decades the Irish Independent has been Ireland's best-selling daily newspaper. Generations of Irish families have viewed them as a trusted source of news, information and entertainment. But with the media landscape changing rapidly and often unpredictably, they identified a greater need to be where the audience is.
Recognising a gap in the market in 2022, the Irish Independent prioritised building an audio brand and output that could turn the newspaper's readers into listeners and attract a new audience that is unlikely ever to buy a newspaper. While this was not a novel idea for a newsroom, they aimed to bring a news offering that Ireland still needed.
With an emphasis on story-telling and high production values, The Indo Daily delivers a crafted 20-minute listening experience six days a week. They bring the stories that matter to people to suit their daily routines. As a result, the trusted reputation of the podcast has grown.
Apple listed The Indo Daily podcast as "one to watch" in its annual roundup, and in less than a year, they have become the Number 1 news podcast on iTunes for Ireland. They are also regularly in the overall Spotify Top 5.
BEST EPAPER-CONCEPT
New NPG e-paper product, NPG Digital, Germany.
NPG Digital aimed to focus on the subscription business model for online news and strengthen its e-paper business. Launching new apps for the Lausitzer Rundschau (LR), MOZ.de, and SÜDWEST PRESSE has successfully combined the world of online news and the e-paper, providing users with a comprehensive platform for accessing their preferred news content.
The app's visually separated interface offers an easy and seamless experience, allowing users to navigate and consume news content effortlessly. The added feature of the Modern View is a game-changer, taking the e-paper experience to a whole new level.
The Modern View is produced automatically from the print edition, providing a contemporary look and feel, making it easier to read on any screen size. In summary, integrating the online news and e-paper worlds with the Modern View and added features is a fantastic innovation, making the app stand out in the market.
BEST TRUST INITIATIVE
Transparency portal – How we make VG, Verdens Gang (VG), Norway.
With news fatigue among many users, especially young people, VG wanted to do something concrete to show people new solutions to understand and consume news. Moreover, they wanted to make their audience understand their editorial coverage by being open about the considerations inside the newsroom and providing answers on topics. These things are crucial for a young audience. They then decided to build on existing initiatives and create a transparency solution easily accessible to their users. They called it "How we work in VG." Their project would also move the mindset in their organisation towards more modern thinking.
The key to future success is building trust in the brand and news providers in general. The transparency portal and its thinking provide a significant shift compared to traditional ways of doing things. Adding features like the read-aloud function and bookmark list makes it even more convenient for readers to engage with the content. The app's design and features are aesthetically pleasing and practical, providing users with an optimal reading experience. The successful launch of the transparency portal is a significant achievement in itself. It shows VG is willing to be open to users about internal discussions, putting this into best practice in the media house.
JURORS
- Catalina Albeanu, digital editor
- Pablo Altieri, co-founder; strategic partnerships & alliances at DiagonalMinds, Switzerland
- Julia Bähr, lead coordinator of paid content at Tagesspiegel, Germany
- Jeremy Clifford, digital consultant, UK
- John Crowley, digital editor, trainer and journalist, director of Headlines Network, UK
- Olivier Deheneffe, deputy editor-in-chief at L'Avenir, Belgium
- Cyrille Frank, training director at CosaVostra, France
- Carsten Heil, deputy editor in chief at Neue Westfälische, Germany
- Christophe Israël, editor in chief digital and editorial development at Tamedia, Switzerland
- Jean-Marie Lagnel, data designer, France
- Aviva Loeb, audience growth specialist at The Washington Post, USA
- Mira Milosevic, executive director at Global Forum for Media Development, UK
- Randi Øgrey, CEO at Mediebedriftenes Landsforening, Norway
- Mary-Katharine Phillips, associate director of engagement at Dow Jones / The Wall Street Journal, USA
- Leonardo Pescante, deputy editor in chief at 24heures.ch, Switzerland
- Penny Riordan, director business strategy and partnerships at Local Media Association, USA
- Marie Van de Voorde, publisher at Les Echos, France
- Brian Veseling, senior editor at WAN-IFRA, Germany
- Gregor Waller, principal consultant at WAN-IFRA Consulting, Germany
- Frank Wiedemann, head digital transformation at Somedia, Switzerland
- Marc Zahlmann, managing director at Aschendorff Medien Gmbh & Co. KG, Germany
- Maxime Le Hégarat, head of digital video at Le Télégramme, France.
