Newspaper & Mailroom
IFRA presents Asias best publications
Wednesday 02. April 2008 - 7th Annual Asia Media Awards 2008, held in conjunction with IFRAs Publish Asia 2008 in Macau, China
H. E. Victor Chan, Director of the Government Information Bureau of the SAR of Macau, today opened Publish Asia, the biggest international conference and exhibition for publishers and print industry movers in the Asia Pacific region (www.publishasia.com). Held in conjunction with Publish Asia from 2 to 3 April 2008 is the 7th Annual Asia Media Awards competition. This prestigious contest is organised by IFRA Asia to promote the highest standards of quality and creativity in the publishing industry.
Hundreds of newspapers and magazines in the Asia Pacific region and the Middle East have taken part over the past seven years. This year, a record number of more than five hundred and twenty entries for all categories were received from the Asia Pacific region and the Middle East, a sign that newspapers are aiming at increasingly higher standards of print quality and journalism. The overall outstanding level of quality of these entries demonstrates that the Asian publishing industry is indeed in a very healthy state.
As part of its objective to encourage better journalism, IFRA Asia introduced several new categories this year, such as Best in Special Coverage or Best in Newspaper Online Media. A summary of the competition categories is listed below:
1. Best in Design Award
The award will be presented to entries of which the overall design, originality and content have achieved high levels of excellence. Entries will be judged not only on design but on how design is used to project the contents. This includes the use of typography, photography, information graphics and colour.
Category 1: Best in Newspaper Design
Category 2: Best in Magazine Overall Design
Category 3: Best in Magazine Cover Design
Category 4: Best in Newspaper Front Page (new category)
2. Best in Infographics Award
This award aims to acknowledge excellence in design, usefulness and clarity of graphic information conveyed in newspapers and magazines.
Category 1: Best in Newspaper Infographics – Breaking News
Category 2: Best in Newspaper Infographics – Non-Breaking News
Category 3: Best in Magazine Infographics
3. Best in Asian Newspaper Colour Quality Award
The Asian Newspaper Colour Quality awards will be presented to newspapers for excellence in standardised printing. The focus of the award is to show the ability of newspapers to print in accordance with existing international standards (ISO 12647-3:2005).
This competition is open to newspapers only.
Category 1: Weekday circulation below 80,000 copies
Category 2: Weekday circulation 80,000 – 200,000 copies
Category 3: Weekday circulation over 200,000 copies
4. Best in Newspaper Supplement Award
This award recognises the most innovative and successful newspaper supplement. Entries should provide evidence of creative layout and design with clear reproduction and innovative editorial skills in making content relevant to readers.
5. Best in Special Coverage (new category)
This award recognises newspaper special sections or magazine special issues that demonstrate high standards of content, overall design and photography as well as originality to explore a topic of significance.
6. Best in Newspaper Online Media (new category)
This award recognises publishers who have adopted digital media as part of their total product offer to meet the major changes in how people consume news and information.
7. Best in Photojournalism Award
The award is open to all professional photographers working for either newspapers or magazines or supplying work to either news, sports or feature agencies or providing content for websites affiliated with newspapers, magazines or sites providing independent and non-affiliated photojournalism content.
Category 1: News Photography – General News / Spot News
Category 2: Feature Photography
Category 3: Sports Photography
Category 4: Newspaper Photographer of the Year
Asia Media Awards Jury
IFRA thanks the top international judges who sat on three different juries:
– Design jury: Mauricio Gutierrez, Design Director, The Detroit Free Press (USA); Kris Visselman, Editorial Director, National Geographic Society (USA); Gabriella Schmidt, Design Consultant (Mexico); Peter Ong, Newspaper Consultant (Australia).
– Online Media jury: Stig Nordqvist, Business Development Director, IFRA (Sweden); Zeid Nasser, Managing Director, MediaScope – Secretary General, International Advertising Association (Jordan); Paul Soon, Managing Director, XM – An RMG Connect Company (Singapore).
– Photojournalism jury: Chris Usher, Newspaper free-lance Photographer (USA); Valérie Theveniaud, Director of Contents and Syndication, Le Figaro Group (France); Eric Goh, Free-lance photographer, International Representative to the Photographic Society of America, President of the Singapore Colour Photographic Society (Singapore).