WAN-IFRA unveils winners

WAN-IFRA says, in the 2024 edition, more than 140 projects from 69 media companies from 17 different countries in North America, Central America, and South America participated, highlighting topics such as diversity, climate change, the problem of drug trafficking, innovation and elections, and latent concerns in the region.

This year, the contest includes new categories addressing the latest needs of audiences and the industry, added the organisation: Best Fact-Checking Project, Best Innovative Digital Product, Best Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Newsroom and Best Use of AI in Revenue Strategy, without leaving behind categories such as Best Digital Journalism Project, Best Newsletter and Best Podcast. WAN-IFRA says it appreciates the efforts of all participating media and hopes to have them in the next edition of the Digital Media Awards.

WAN IFRA has announced the winners as follows:

Best News Website

LN X, a new lanacion.com, LA NACION, Argentina

The project focused on satisfying an increasingly demanding digital audience. LN X had a comprehensive renovation with the incorporation of a variable typography that reinforces the brand's identity and takes it to a more elegant and precise place. In addition, the relaunch aims to improve the browsing experience and provide a better hierarchy and ordering of information.

Best Website (Local/Small)

What matters most in Brazil and Latin America, The Brazilian Report, Brazil

The Brazilian Report exemplifies a commitment to excellence in journalism and user experience. Through innovative design, intuitive navigation, and a diverse range of multimedia storytelling, the platform continues to deliver unparalleled value to its readers. With a focus on continuous improvement and adaptation, The Brazilian Report remains at the forefront of English-language media coverage on Brazilian affairs.

Best Data Visualization

How fentanyl replaced heroin and hooked America, Reuters, USA

Reuters obtained and analyzed ten year’s worth of data on drugs seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents at ports of entry along the southern border. This animated explainer uses that data to show the devastating scale of the fentanyl trade across Mexico and the U.S.

Best Data Visualization (Local/Small)

Tree-Person, SUMAÚMA, Brazil

Tree-person is an interactive report that seeks to raise awareness of the effects of deforestation through the story of an Amazonian tree whose life was taken so that its body could be transformed into furniture. It is part of the More-than-humans project a vehicle based in the Brazilian Amazon –, which tells stories through the grammar of animation, in which animals, plants, fungi and other non-human beings are also actors and authors. seres no humanos son también actores y autores.

Best in Audience Engagement

LA NACION closer (+ Cerca), LA NACION, Argentina

The project is based on a way to connect its community of subscribers with LA NACION's most recognized journalists and other prominent individuals, through exclusively curated and tailor-made events.

Best in Audience Engagement (Local/Small)

Only the young, Vanguardia MX, Mexico

A special edition of the annual "Círculo de oro" supplement, in which they showcase people with extensive backgrounds who are making positive contributions to the community in a specific field. In 2023, they decided to take a risk by creating an edition focused solely on young people who were born in Saltillo or live there, whose talent and discipline have involved them in great projects, making them some of the best in their field with an impact beyond the apparent.

Best Use of Video

Why does Rosario bleed?, Clarín, Argentina

A documentary that seeks to make people both locally and internationally understand the phenomenon beyond the news of the dead in Rosario. And to understand the drug phenomenon, the judicial and political inaction and the huge network of police corruption.

Best Use of Video (Local/Small)

LGBT+60: Bodies that resist | Season 3, Projeto #Colabora, Brazil

A project based on a simple idea: listening to stories. "They are stories that not everyone is used to hearing, whether in the media or debates. They are LGBT+ elderly people, from different genders and social backgrounds, who tell about their experiences, often painful, but also about achievements and dreams”

Best Digital Subscription / Reader Revenue Strategy

UOL Prime, UOL, Brazil

Project with the objective of giving a differentiated treatment to the best stories researched by the newsroom: from the conception to the development of the guideline, from the best format to tell it to the best distribution strategy, using all of UOL's channels.

Best Digital Subscription / Reader Revenue Strategy (Local/Small)

Exclusive courses for subscribers, La Voz del Interior, Argentina

The exclusive courses for subscribers is a launching of La Voz to diversify the value proposition of our content to our audience. They are webinars given by renowned professionals.

Best Newsletter

Reclaim Your Brain, The Guardian, USA

Reclaim Your Brain, a newsletter for anyone who wants to waste less time on their phone. Launched on January 1st to coincide with the readers’ new year’s resolutions, it quickly became The Guardian’s fastest-growing newsletter ever, with 90,000 subscribers in the first month.

Best Newsletter (Local/Small)

CI Morning Impact, Community Impact, USA

The CI Morning Impact is Community Impact's daily newsletter, featuring hyperlocal content on government, education, transportation and development news in each edition.

Best Podcast

The Negotiators (Season 3), Foreign Policy and Doha Debates, USA

“The Negotiators” pulls back the curtain on the often-secretive work of high-stakes negotiations, putting listeners “in the room” where lives, human rights and national interests hang in the balance. Because many critical global negotiations are conducted behind closed doors.

Best Podcast (Local/Small)

Perra Nación (Wild Nation), Independent journalism, Mexico

A series that takes the podcast a step further, diving deep into the most intriguing and underexplored corners of everyday life in Mexico. It tackles uncomfortable stories with moral dilemmas and, at the same time, captivates our audience.

Best Use of AI in the Newsroom

Genie: An AI tool to track the gender gap in Spanish, LA NACION, Argentina

Genie - an internal tool designed with AI / NLP to measure the level of gender representation in LA NACION's news to encourage gender diversity in sources, mentions and authors, providing metrics on female, male and non-binary sources and quotes included in the original reports.

Best Use of AI in the Newsroom (Local/Small)

FátimaGPT, Aos Fatos, Brazil

The goal FatimaGPT was to extend the capabilities of Aos Fatos' original chatbot, Fatima, by integrating advanced artificial intelligence technologies. The project reflects Aos Fatos' approach to AI: to inform and educate readers about its risks and potential harms, while exploring how journalists can use technology responsibly and ethically to improve the public's access to reliable information.

Best Use of AI in Revenue Strategy

CandidateaMe: Experimenting with AI and conversational experiences to drive audience interaction during the presidential election on TN, ARTEAR, Argentina

The project stood out for its ability to defuse a climate of high electoral tension in the signal's programs and on the website. CandidateaMe provided the audience with an interactive and fun way to participate in the electoral process, offering a unique experience that allowed users to explore and learn more about the candidates and their proposals in a relaxed and entertaining way using Generative AI.

Best Fact-Checking Project

Checked, Agencia EFE, LATAM

"Checked" is the first podcast that fights against disinformation in all Spanish-speaking countries, especially in LATAM, through a format that mixes disclosure and entertainment. In 5 minutes a week, it addresses the most viral falsehoods of recent days and encourages listeners to send messages they consider suspicious to the EFE Verifica query service on WhatsApp.

Best Fact-Checking Project (Local/Small)

FátimaGPT, Aos Fatos, Brazil

The goal FatimaGPT was to extend the capabilities of Aos Fatos' original chatbot, Fatima, by integrating advanced artificial intelligence technologies. The project reflects Aos Fatos' approach to AI: to inform and educate readers about its risks and potential harms, while exploring how journalists can use technology responsibly and ethically to improve the public's access to reliable information.

Best Innovative Digital Product

Gio Alemán, Medcom Digital, Panama

Medcom Digital created the first influencer 100% made with Artificial Intelligence with the objective of covering a space in the Panamanian market where there are only 8 A-B target influencers. Additionally, they wanted a project that would generate income and aimed at innovation.

Best Innovative Digital Product (Local/Small)

Rape: a crime unpunished, Mexicanos contra la Corrupción y la Impunidad, Mexico

After processing and analyzing more than 328,000 cases of sexual crimes, the informative angles and stories that accompanied the data were identified. The montage was designed with a transmedia narrative, which exposed the revelations accompanied by multimedia and data visualization elements.

Best Native Advertising Campaign

Titles, Olé, Argentina

The "Titles" communication campaign was published on all digital platforms. Users were invited to download their "Three-time World Champion" title in a very simple and fast way. The campaign included audiovisual pieces for social networks, banners, mailings to Olé's user base, PNTs on Twitch and graphic ads.

Best Native Advertising Campaign (Local/Small)

Myths and truths about obesity and diabetes, Lupa, Brazil

The Brazilian affiliate of the Danish global healthcare company Novo Nordisk has hired Lupa to combat misinformation and fake news about obesity and diabetes, a segment in which the company has a strong presence, with medication therapies treatments for both conditions.

Best Journalism Project

China: The Superpower of Seafood, The Outlaw Ocean Project, USA

The project is the result of a four-year investigation conducted by an international team of reporters at sea and on land that revealed a broad pattern of severe human rights abuses tied to the global seafood industry. It was focused on China because it has by far the largest high-seas fishing fleet and processes much of the world’s catch.

Best Journalism Project (Local/Small)

Amazon Underworld, InfoAmazonia, La Liga Contra el Silencio and Armando.Info, Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela (respectively)

Amazon Underworld is a cross-border collaborative media investigation run by InfoAmazonia (Brazil), La Liga Contra el Silencio (Colombia) and Armando.Info (Venezuela). The project used primary sources and official documents to create the first-ever interactive map, incorporating the presence of armed groups and illicit economies in the border regions of six Amazon countries