South Africa wins at Inma Global Media Awards

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The 2017 competition generated 655 entries from 196 news brands in 36 countries. The competition was judged in February and March by an international jury of 44 executives from 17 countries representing the worlds of media and marketing. Inma President Mark Challinor presented the awards at the closing dinner of the 87th Annual Inma World Congress of News Media before more than 300 media executives.

Overall, 40 first place awards in 20 categories across two audience groups were presented to 34 news media companies.

“The winning entries in this year’s Global Media Awards show a media industry growing comfortable with new ways of telling stories for readers and advertisers,” said Earl J. Wilkinson, executive director and CEO of Inma. “We have transitioned from the surprise of transformation to breakthrough creativity in the new ecosystems. Inma is privileged to play a role in surfacing these best practices from media companies worldwide.”

Top winners

Judges picked top entries in six world regions:

• ‘Best in Africa’: Independent Media, South Africa, ‘Racism Stops With Me’
• ‘Best in Asia/Pacific’: News Regional Media, Australia, ‘Hey Mumma and Omo’
• ‘Best in Europe’: Aftenposten, Norway, ‘#DearMark: How Aftenposten Stood Up Against Facebook’
• ‘Best in Latin America’: Zero Hora, Brazil, ‘Zero Hora Social Networks’
• ‘Best in North America’: NBC News Digital, United States, ‘Virtual Democracy Plaza’
• ‘Best in South Asia’: Jagran Prakashan, India, ‘The Gamification of Advertising Sales for Revenue Growth’

From these regional winners, judges selected Aftenposten’s campaign, ‘#DearMark: How Aftenposten Stood Up Against Facebook’. Aftenposten’s well-chronicled clash with Facebook over the late Nick Uts’ picture from the Vietnam War became one of the most important social media events of the year. As one judge remarked, ‘Aftenposten influenced the world beyond Oslo in a powerful way by simply doing good journalism. This campaign was also deploring today’s confusion between news and fake news, between news provider and content provider.’

Six companies won multiple first-place awards: Aftenposten, Fairfax Media, Financial Times, News Corp Australia, News Regional Media, and Schibsted.

All finalists and winners are highlighted in the ‘Best Practices’ archive at Inma.org.

South African winners

Group 1 below represents regional/local brands. Group 2 represents global/national brands.

• Category 2: ‘Best Public Relations or Community Service Campaign’/Group 2: Global/National Brands - First Place: Independent Media, South Africa, ‘Racism Stops With Me’
• Category 4: ‘Best New Print Product’/Group 1: Regional/Local Brands - Second Place: Independent Media, South Africa, ‘Home Property Magazine Kwa-Zulu Natal’
• Category 6: ‘Best Use of Video’/Group 2: Global/National Brands - Second Place: Independent Media Mojo, South Africa, ‘Don't Look Away: 16 Days of Activism’

The next Global Media Awards competition deadline is Friday, 26 January 2018.