WAN-IFRA's Digital Media Awards are a showcase for the best-practice innovation in digital publishing worldwide. The awards are presented in regions around the world throughout the year. In North America, WAN-IFRA has introduced some new categories this year, in particular, Best Reader Revenue Initiative and Best Digital News Start-up. For this edition, the expert International jury evaluated more than 50 projects from 22 companies from the US and Canada.
Winners of the North American Digital Media will immediately qualify to compete for WAN-IFRA's World Digital Media Awards against the best digital projects of Africa, Asia, Europe, LATAM, the Middle East and South Asia.
The winners of the 2nd annual North American Digital Media Awards are:
BEST USE OF ONLINE VIDEO (INCLUDING VR)
Visual Vocabulary, The New York Times
“An outstanding entry which combines almost every editorial and technical tool available to multiplatform, immersive, engaging and sharable storytelling at its best.”
BEST DATA VISUALIZATION
TIE (The Washington Post - Guardian US)
365 Days of President Trump’s false or misleading claims, The Washington Post
“A fantastic multi-purpose resource, encompassing accountability journalism, graphics and a searchable database that equally equips reporters and members of the public to hold President Trump accountable. Smartly designed as a project that can function as a centerpiece for a significant amount of The Post's coverage of Trump.”
Bussed Out: How America moves its homeless, Guardian US
“The infographics in this piece really wowed me! I saw animations and interactions that I haven't seen before, consistent placement/coloring that tied different graphics together, and some great scroll-to-activate motions that tied perfectly in with the story. Fascinating, and really engaging.”
BEST IN LIFESTYLE, SPORTS, ENTERTAINMENT WEBSITE OR MOBILE SERVICES
The Lily, The Washington Post
“Exceedingly attractive, clean and loads quickly, and the newsletters are very nicely designed as well.”
BEST READER REVENUE INITIATIVE
This Land is Your Land, Guardian US
“It doubled its reader-funded goal, which is as good a sign as any that the project's reached the readers who want to have a stake in this reporting.”
BEST BRANDED CONTENT PROJECT
The United Nations Ocean Conference, Cultura Colectiva
“This was really well done, with a great combination of sponsor message and host tone to create something informative and valuable. Very detailed in terms of how it not only met, but nearly doubled, the sponsor's expectations.”
BEST DIGITAL NEWS START-UP
Axios
“Axios is a breath of fresh air in the digital media landscape that knows how to perfectly combine the quality of information produced with innovative and very effective formats for the public. It has managed to innovate in a territory occupied by many players offering a great and effective journalistic alternative to users.”
BEST IN SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT
STAT Madness, STAT
“An exceptionally original and creative digital project. It has managed to transfer the passion for a popular sports competition to a totally different environment, such as that of university scientific research. Thanks to its attractive and engaging format, STAT Madness has managed to connect with a large base of digital users, also through social networks.”
BEST INNOVATION TO ENGAGE YOUTH AUDIENCES
News-O-Matic
“A fantastic news literacy project that introduces kids and teenagers in a really complete and creative way to news and journalism.”
BEST DIGITAL MARKETING CAMPAIGN
Dirty John, Los Angeles Times
“A very well planned and executed campaign that has been an incredible success among users.”
BEST NEWS WEBSITE OR MOBILE SERVICE
washingtonpost.com, The Washington Post
“The Washington Post has recently firmly occupied the leading position in the digital media sector globally having gained a stellar reputation for technical innovation concentrating on excellent user experience of its stellar journalism.”
