The awards, presented Tuesday evening at a ceremony during the World Publishing Expo in Frankfurt, Germany, honours publishers that have mastered audience engagement and gained large followings on Twitter, Facebook, or on other social media platforms.
“These winners demonstrate just how quickly newspapers have mastered the art of social media, and how quickly they are adapting to the rapid changes in technology, audience preferences, and multimedia news delivery,” said Vincent Peyrègne, CEO of WAN-IFRA. “XMA shows again in 2012 that the mission for news publishers is, and has always been, about engaging audience.
“We've learned, since the emergence of social media on a broad scale, that today's Internet driving force relies on technology to build audiences and gather communities around a wide range of topics. XMA winners understand the ongoing revolution in terms of audience management. Publishers must now fight for attraction and visibility in a widely open environment, while our industry used to rely mainly on a closed and controlled environment. We all understand that social media is not a substitute but a vital support to our core mission of delivering quality content to the right audience. There is a great deal to be learned and emulated here.”
“Top Trends in Social Media: Best of the XMA Cross Media Awards,” a new report, is available free to WAN-IFRA members and for sale to non-members.
The World Publishing Expo continues through Wednesday. Follow the events on the conference blog or on Twitter with #wpe12
The XMA winners
Best community engagement
1. Últimas Noticias - "El diario de la gente", Venezuela
2. Presse Druck - "retter.tv", Germany
3. WVW-Westdeutsche Verlags- und Werbegesellschaft - "Lokalkompass", Germany
Best use of Facebook by a newspaper
1. Guardian News & Media - "Guardian Facebook App", UK
2. 24sata - "24sata Facebook activity", Croatia
3. Le Parisien - "Le Parisien on Facebook", France
Monetization
1. Singapore Press Holdings - "omy Blog Club", Singapore
2. Regionalmedien Austria - "Agrarmarketing Tirol – Fotogewinnspiel", Austria
3. Singapore Press Holdings - "Flying High", Singapore
Special projects
1. Verdens Gang - "The 22nd of July terror attack", Norway
2. The Times Newspapers - "The Times for the Cities Fit for Cycling campaign", UK
3. Aftonbladet - "CreateTV for Rockbjörnen", Sweden
The XMA Cross Media Awards, now in its seventh year, showcases the most creative examples in cross-media publishing.