Indian superstars including The Hindu and Hindustan Times contribute to a world-leading 22 mentions in INMA’s list of Global Media Awards finalists, published today.
Australia has ten finalists in the list, while Sngapore’s SPH Media and New Zealand’s Stuff also stand out.
INMA has named 199 finalists in the 2025 awards, with themes around the use of AI in newsroom innovation and subscriptions, uncovering facts and truth, promoting the public good campaigns, reaching next-generation readers, sports, health and user engagement at its heart.
INMA garnered 839 entries from 286 news media brands in 49 countries, with finalists hailing from Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Latin America, North America, and South Asia. Companies that dominated the list include Amedia, The Hindu, Hindustan Times, Mediahuis, News Corp, Ringier, Russmedia, SPH Media, Stuff, Schibsted, and Stampen. Leading the finalist list were entries from India (22), Norway (21), United States (20), Germany (17), Sweden (15), Australia (ten), and Brazil (nine).
In its 88th year, the 2025 awards include 20 categories across two segments – national/international and regional. The categories focus on excellence in news brands, media features, product, subscriptions, advertising and commerce, newsrooms, and AI.
First-place winners, regional winners, and the global ‘best in show’ will be announced May 22 at the Edison Ballroom in New York (pictured), at the culmination of the INMA World Congress of News Media being held May 19-23.
Executive director and chief executive Earl Wilkinson says the “unparalleled showcase of groundbreaking insights and experiments” illuminates the path the news industry is taking to captivate new audiences, “while keeping them both informed and inspired.
“This year’s awards entries reveal where our news media network is heading –pioneering strategies to position their news brands, engage diverse audiences, and continuously innovate the ways they connect – all while staying true to the heart of their brands and the communities they serve.”
Some 60 media experts from 26 countries judged the entries in February, evaluating on breakthrough results, unique concepts, strong creativity, innovative thinking, and winning synergies across platforms. The 839 entries in this year’s competition are live on INMA.org in the association’s ‘best practices’ archive. Finalists may be viewed publicly, while all other entries are reserved for INMA members.
Global Media Awards finalists (listed alphabetically):
Category 1: BEST BRAND AWARENESS CAMPAIGN
Regional Brands
Gannett, Indianapolis, United States, “IndyStar — Lifting Indy Voices”
The Hindu, Chennai, India, “The Hindu Made of Chennai”
JFM, Odense, Denmark, “The Near, Nearest — Fyns Amts Avis”
Newsday Media Group, Melville, United States, “Newsday Team Coverage”
Nine, North Sydney, Australia, “All Yours — The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age”
National Brands
Editora Globo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, “Not Subscribing Could Cost You Much More”
Jagran Prakashan, New Delhi, India, “Brick By Brick We Build a Nation”
News Corp Australia, Sydney, Australia, “Welcome to the Contest of Ideas”
South China Morning Post, Hong Kong, “Life. Culture. Discovery.”
Stuff Group, Auckland, New Zealand, “The F#$%ing News”
Category 2: BEST PUBLIC RELATIONS OR COMMUNITY SERVICE CAMPAIGN
Regional Brands
ABP Group, Kolkata, India, “ShobdoJobdo: A Quest to Find the Best Bengali Wordsmiths”
Jagran Prakashan, Kanpur, India, “Choose to Refuse”
Mediahuis Noord, Groningen, Netherlands, “Help Ukraine Now!”
News Corp Australia, Sydney, Australia, “The Courier-Mail and NRMA Insurance Help Our Highway”
Südkurier, Konstanz, Germany, “Südkurier Zeitungswald”
National Brands
Association of Independent Regional Press Publishers of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine, “Rescuing Freedom: The Campaign to Save Ukrainian Regional Journalism”
DB Corp, Bhopal, India, “Ek Ped Ek Zindagi”
Hanza Media, Zagreb, Croatia, “From Source to Sea”
Independent Media, Cape Town, South Africa, “Elevate Her”
News Corp Australia, Surry Hills, Australia, “About Bloody Time”
Category 3: BEST USE OF AN EVENT TO BUILD A NEWS BRAND
Regional Brands
Austin American-Statesman, United States, “Austin City Sounds Activation”
Belfast Telegraph and Sunday Life, Belfast, United Kingdom, “Spirit of Northern Ireland Awards”
The Hindu, Chennai, India, “The Hindu Made of Chennai-Moonlight Cinema”
Jagran Prakashan, Kanpur, India, “Healthon: Run for Yourself”
Toronto Star, Canada, “Menopause Out Loud, Women’s Health Feature”
National Brands
Dow Jones, New York, United States, “Journal House by The Wall Street Journal”
Gremi Media, Warsaw, Poland, “Rzeczpospolita Zone”
HT Media Group, Noida, India, “Hindustan Olympiad”
Prothom Alo, Dhaka, Bangladesh, “National Health Olympiad: Innovation and Action for a Healthier Future”
VG, Oslo, Norway, “VG-Lista 2024”
Category 4: BEST IDEA TO ENCOURAGE READER ENGAGEMENT
Regional Brands
Amedia, Oslo, Norway, “Ignoring the Majority: How Neglecting 90% of Our Readers Led to More Young Subscribers”
Folha de S. Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, “Streaming CasaFolha”
The Hindu, Chennai, India, “The Hindu Made of Chennai — Reader Engagement”
Mediahuis Noord, Groningen, Netherlands, “Translating a Decades Old Print Tradition to an Engaging Digital Format”
Retresco, Berlin, Germany, “Successful Content Tagging for Google Discover at Südwest Presse”
National Brands
Amedia, Oslo, Norway, “A Truly Personal Experience”
Grupo El Comercio, Lima, Peru, “Premios Somos”
Media24, Johannesburg, South Africa, “Nuutskeppingskompetisie (Create your own word-competition)”
Prothom Alo, Dhaka, Bangladesh, “Echoes of Defiance: Inspiring a Generation Through Truth and Resilience”
Schibsted Media, Oslo, Norway, “The Vertical Shift In VG”
Category 5: BEST INITIATIVE TO BOLSTER NEXT-GENERATION READERSHIP
Regional Brands
Amedia, Oslo, Norway, “Ignoring the Majority: How Neglecting 90% of Our Readers Led to More Young Subscribers”
Bergens Tidende, Norway, “Connecting with the Lost Generation: Six Lessons from Bergens Tidende’s Short Videos Breakthrough”
Boston Globe Media, Boston, United States, “The B-Side”
Bremer Tageszeitungen, Germany, “Start Smart: Weser-Kurier for Future Professionals”
Russmedia, Schwarzach, Austria, “VOL.AT Shorts: Driving Reader Engagement and Premium Subscriptions”
National Brands
Bonnier News, Stockholm, Sweden, “Expressen’s New Strategic Approach to Next-Generation Readers”
The Hindu, Chennai, India, “Fostering Engagement: A Year-Long Multifaceted Approach at The Hindu Young World”
Ringier, Zürich, Switzerland, “Blick Live Quiz”
Schibsted, Oslo, Norway, “VG’s Social Media Amplification of Investigative Journalism”
SPH Media, Singapore, “Thrive: The Business Times”
Category 6: BEST NEW AUDIO/VOICE PRODUCT OR FEATURE
Regional Brands
Bergens Tidende, Norway, “Connecting with the Lost Generation: Six Lessons from Bergens Tidende’s Short Videos Breakthrough”
The Hindu, Chennai, India, “Life in a Day of Chennai”
News Corporation, Adelaide, Australia, “While I Was Sleeping”
pd next, Augsburg, Germany, “In Prison”
Pulgar Digital, Bahia Blanca, Argentina, “The Art of Dignified Storytelling: Inspiring Local Change”
National Brands
Bennett, Coleman and Co., New Delhi, India, “In With the News, Out With the Noise”
Collective Newsroom, New Delhi, India, “BBC News India: Bringing Untold Stories to Light”
The Kyiv Independent Media, Ukraine, “Travel Show”
News Corp Australia, Sydney, Australia, “Bronwyn”
South China Morning Post, Hong Kong, “#852stories”
Category 7: BEST NEW AUDIO/VOICE PRODUCT OR FEATURE
Regional Brands
Bergens Tidende, Norway, “It’s All About the Tone of Voice: How Bergens Tidende Cloned the Sound of the City”
Göteborgs-Posten, Gothenburg, Sweden, “The Öckerö Police Shooting”
Nordwest-Mediengruppe, Oldenburg, Germany, “The Search for U-96: The Last Secret”
Russmedia, Schwarzach, Austria, “Glücksimpulse”
Times Union, Albany, United States, “Catastrophic Failure”
National Brands
La Nación, Vicente López, Argentina, “AI Author Voices”
Mediahuis Ireland, Dublin, Ireland, “Indo Sport: Moving Our Sports Coverage onto a New Pitch”
News Corp Australia, Sydney , Australia, “Bronwyn”
SPH Media, Singapore, “Sounds of Singapore”
Svenska Dagbladet, Stockholm, Sweden, “Beyond Text-to-Speech: How SvD Turns Written Articles into Exciting Audio Experiences”
Category 8: BEST USE OF PRINT
Regional Brands
Grupo RBS, Porto Alegre, Brazil, “Zero Hora: O Teu Mundo, De Fato”
The Hindu, Chennai, India, “The Hindu Made of Chennai”
Hryvna Newspaper, Kherson, Ukraine, “A Beacon of Truth in the Heart of War”
NZME, Hastings, New Zealand, “Cyclone Gabrielle — Commemorative Edition”
Oahu Publications, Honolulu, United States, “2024 Hawaii Voter Guides”
National Brands
Grupo Clarín, Buenos Aires, Argentina, “Ñ: The Cultural Magazine of Argentina and the Spanish-Speaking World”
Hanza Media, Zagreb, Croatia, “Business Outlook”
HT Media, New Delhi, India, “Hindustan Times Leadership Summit 2024”
South China Morning Post, Hong Kong, “Style”
SPH Media, Singapore, “9-Part Taylor Swift Infographics that Make Up a Giant Poster”
Category 9: BEST USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Regional Brands
ABP, Kolkata, India, “Cadbury Utsaver Mishtimukh”
Grupo RBS, Porto Alegre, Brazil, “Timely Information: GZH’s Coverage of the May Floods on Social Media”
Netwerk24, Cape Town, South Africa, “Newspaper Gives Street Posters a New Digital Life”
Newsday, Melville, United States, “Newsday’s Social Media Team Grew YouTube Subscribers by 60%”
Reach, London, United Kingdom, “Creative Automation to Grow Audience and Drive Performance”
National Brands
DMG Media, New York, United States, “Daily Mail’s TikTok Success: The Most Followed News Account”
HT Labs, New Delhi, India, “OTTplay”
Kompas Media Nusantara, Jakarta, Indonesia, “Young Voices, Young Choices (#MudaMemilih): Political Literacy for Gen Z”
Pulse Africa, Lagos, Nigeria, “Leading Social-First Business Journalism in Africa”
Schibsted, Oslo, Norway, “VG’s Social Media Amplification of Investigative Journalism”
Category 10: BEST NEW DIGITAL PRODUCT
Regional Brands
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, United States, “Reinventing a 155-year Legacy: The App is at the Heart of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Journey to Becoming a Modern Media Company”
Keskisuomalainen, Jyväskylä, Finland, “Driving Digital Transformation of Regional Media: Building 22 Local News Apps on a Shared Platform”
NTM, Norrköping, Sweden, “Top News: AI Powered Audio”
Russmedia, Schwarzach, Austria, “AI Watch Dog”
Star Tribune Media Company, Minneapolis, United States, “The Minnesota Star Tribune App Retains 81% of Readers, Launching as Part of Their Digital Transformation”
National Brands
Belga.press, Brussels, Belgium, “Serving the Whole News Cycle in a Single Platform”
Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich, Switzerland, “A Spatial Dimension of NZZ”
Rappler Holdings, Pasig City, Philippines, “The Future of News Model”
Schibsted Media, Oslo, Norway, “The Vertical Shift In VG”
SPH Media, Singapore, “Tamil Murasu: Daily News App”
Category 11: BEST PRODUCT ITERATION
Regional Brands
Australian Community Media, Sydney, Australia, “Digital + Weekend: A Sustainable Model for Regional Journalism”
Hearst Newspapers, Albany, United States, “Capitol Confidential: Transforming a Free Newsletter into a Standalone Subscription Product”
Mediahuis, Amsterdam, Netherlands, “Being Ikea and Beating the Kitchen Memo Effect”
Stampen Media, Gothenburg, Sweden, “134% Growth: Hiding in Plain Sight”
Verlag der Tagesspiegel, Berlin, Germany, “The New Tagesspiegel Weekend”
National Brands
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Frankfurt, Germany, “How We Created the Most Sensational FAZ.net News Site”
HT Labs, New Delhi, India, “Best Product Iteration”
Mediahuis, Amsterdam, Netherlands, “Breaking Barriers: How We Transformed Our Paywall into a Growth Engine”
Schibsted, Oslo, Norway, “How Aftenposten Used a New Personalisation Tool to Boost Engagement and Subscription Sales Among Younger Users”
South China Morning Post, Hong Kong, “SCMP.com 2.0”
Category 12: BEST INITIATIVE TO GROW SUBSCRIPTIONS
Regional Brands
DC Thomson, Dundee, United Kingdom, “Sport Pack”
Hearst Newspapers, Albany, United States, “Capitol Confidential: Targeted Growth Through a Standalone Political Newsletter”
Nine, North Sydney, Australia, “Multi-Package Paywall Experiment”
Stampen Media, Göteborg, Sweden, “From the Hyper Local to the Fully Global: How We Doubled Growth for Our Local Titles with +GP”
VK Media, Umea, Sweden, “Marketing Heart Newsroom: A Love Story of Transformation and Digital Growth”
National Brands
News Corp Australia, Sydney, Australia, “News Pass Registration Strategy”
Schibsted Media, Norway/Sweden, “Driving Subscription Growth Through Personalisation for Anonymous Users”
Stuff Group, Auckland, New Zealand, “Marketing at the Speed of the News Cycle”
Svenska Dagbladet, Stockholm, Sweden, “Dynamic Paywall at Svenska Dagbladet”
United Daily News Group, Xizhi District, Taiwan, “AIAssist: AI-Embedded Newsroom, Centralising Journalism Values”
Category 13: BEST INITIATIVE TO ENGAGE AND RETAIN SUBSCRIBERS
Regional Brands
Advance Local, New York, United States, “Using Premium Newsletters to Grow Subscriber Retention”
Amedia, Oslo, Norway, “Ignoring the Majority: How Neglecting 90% of Our Readers Led to More Young Subscribers”
Badischer Verlag, Freiburg, Germany, “BZ-Lieblingsplätze App”
Le Devoir, Montreal, Canada, “Onboarding Subscribers to Foster Direct Relationships”
Rheinische Post Mediengruppe, Düsseldorf, Germany, “Value-Added Campaign”
National Brands
Editora Globo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, “Meet and Greet at Rio Gastronomia with Clube O Globo”
Financial Times, London, United Kingdom, “Transforming the FT’s Subscriber Retention Through AI and Personalisation”
Schibsted, Oslo, Norway, “How Aftenposten Used Active Personalisation to Skyrocket Local, Regional, and National Engagement”
Stuff Group, Auckland, New Zealand, “Marketing at the Speed of the News Cycle”
The Washington Post, United States, “Transforming the New Subscriber Experience: Driving Engagement and Retention”
Category 14: BEST IDEA TO GROW ADVERTISING SALES
Regional Brands
ABP, Kolkata, India, “Maaza Grand Pujo Parikrama 2024”
The Irish Times Group, Cork, Ireland, “Cork Simon Community Legacy Giving”
Mediahuis Noord, Groningen, Netherlands, “Triple Ad Revenue with Highlighted Fullscreen Ads”
Nordwest Mediengruppe, Oldenburg, Germany, “From Two Traditional Newspaper Publishers to a Demand-Oriented 360-Degree Sales Agency”
Russmedia, Schwarzach, Austria, “Revolutionising Advertising Sales Through Emotional Storytelling”
National Brands
Burda International, Warsaw, Poland, “Implementation of Questvertising as an Additional Source of Ad Revenue”
Mediafin, Brussels, Belgium, “Trust Insights: How We Turned Data into Gold for Bolero”
Mediahuis, Dublin, Ireland, “Reclick: A First-Party Data Retargeting Revolution”
NZME, Auckland, New Zealand, “Imprint 2024”
United Daily News Group, New Taipei City, Taiwan, “Smart Strategies for Tough Times: How Data and AI Empower Publishers to Reclaim Advertising Revenue”
Category 15: MOST CREATIVE USE OF ADVERTISING FORMATS
Regional Brands
Folha de S.Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, “Netflix’s Senna Series”
Newsday Media Group, Melville, United States, “Date Night: Brand360 Custom Content Series Marketing Program”
Nordwest Mediengruppe, Oldenburg, Germany, “Future Festival Growmorrow”
Rede Gazeta, Vitória, Brasil, “Live Chat Commerce”
Russmedia, Schwarzach, Austria, “Innovative Storytelling: The Art of Blending Visuals, Videos, and Text”
National Brands
Aller Media, Oslo, Norway, “Helsedirektoratet Suicide Prevention”
Bennett, Coleman & Co., Mumbai, India, “Dove Mothermonials”
Grupo Clarín, Buenos Aires, Argentina, “Fake Ads Clarín”
Grupo El Comercio, Lima, Peru, “La Bandera del Aliento”
HT Media, New Delhi, India, “HT@100: Celebrating a Century of Being the Voice of the Nation”
Category 16: BEST COMMERCE PRODUCT OR SERVICE
Regional Brands (Judges selected only four finalists in this segment)
KStA Digitale Medien, Cologne, Germany, “Highway To Sell: Sharemax”
Oahu Publications, Honolulu, United States, “2024 Hawaii Voter Guides”
Rheinische Post Mediengruppe, Düsseldorf, Germany, “One-Click Payment: Subscription with a Single Click”
Toronto Star, Canada, “Taylor Swift in Toronto: A Fan Celebration, Limited-Edition Magazine”
National Brands
The Daily Star, Dhaka, Bangladesh, “Keeron: Accelerating Careers, Redefining Media”
Funke Digital, Berlin, Germany, “Beyond Paywalls: How Funke Digital Turns Experts into Commerce Partners”
Legit, Nairobi, Kenya, “Tuko Copywriting Course”
Ringier, Zürich, Switzerland, “Beobachter Ecosystem”
Verdens Gang, Oslo, Norway, “Ønsk: Reinventing Gift-Giving to Fund Independent Journalism”
Category 17: BEST USE OF AI FOR INTERNAL PRODUCTIVITY
Regional Brands
A Gazeta do Espírito Santo, Vitória, Brazil, “ AI for Producing Film Reviews in Video Format”
Amedia, Oslo, Norway, “How Amedia Got Half Its Journalists Using AI By Keeping It Simple”
Badischer Verlag, Freiburg, Germany, “BZ.Echo”
Hearst Newspapers, San Francisco, United States, “Assembly: Using AI to Transform Coverage of Public Meetings”
Russmedia, Schwarzach, Austria, “Russmedia Meets AI 2.0”
National Brands
Constructive Institute, Aarhus, Denmark, “Constructive News Mirror”
KG Media, Jakarta, Indonesia, “AI Media Intelligence for SDGs”
Ringier, Zürich, Switzerland, “Floorian: Our AI-Optimised Dynamic Floor Price Manager”
Schibsted, Oslo, Norway, “User Interest Predictions”
United Daily News Group, Xizhi District, Taiwan, “AIAssist: AI-Embedded Newsroom, Centralising Journalism Values”
Category 18: BEST USE OF AI IN CUSTOMER-FACING PRODUCTS
Regional Brands
Amar Ujala, Noida, India, “Sarthi AI Chatbot”
Hearst Newspapers, San Francisco, United States, “Kamala Harris News Assistant: Connecting Readers to 30 Years of SFChronicle Reporting”
NTM, Norrköping, Sweden, “Top News: AI-Powered Audio”
Stampen Media, Gothenburg, Sweden, “Robin’s Robots”
Stuff Group, Hamilton, New Zealand, “Democracy.AI”
National Brands
Prisa, Madrid, Spain, “VerificAudio”
Ringier, Zürich, Switzerland, “Beobachter Chatbot for Legal Advice”
Ringier Axel Springer, Warsaw, Poland, “AI-Powered Travel Planner: Revolutionising Content Marketing and Enhancing User Engagement for German Tourism”
Schibsted Media, Stockholm, Sweden, “Aftonbladet’s Election Buddies”
Stuff Group, Auckland, New Zealand, “How AI Is Helping an Indigenous Language Survive”
Category 19: BEST INNOVATION IN NEWSROOM TRANSFORMATION
Regional Brands
Amedia, Oslo, Norway, “How Amedia Got Half Its Journalists Using AI By Keeping It Simple”
Bergens Tidende, Norway, “Connecting with the Lost Generation: Six Lessons from Bergens Tidende’s Short Videos Breakthrough”
NTM, Norrköping, Sweden, “Friendly SWAT teams”
The Philadelphia Inquirer, United States, “Squid”
Stampen Media, Gothenburg, Sweden, “Levity and Gravity”
National Brands
Alma Media, Helsinki, Finland, “Fighting News Fatigue with GenAI Sentiment Analysis in Iltalehti”
Editora Globo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, “Digital Acceleration: How a Change in Newsroom Structure Transformed the Game for O Globo’s Audience”
Gazeta Wyborcza, Warsaw, Poland, “Less is More: The Transformation of Gazeta Wyborcza’s Local Newsrooms”
Ippen Digital, Munich, Germany, “AI-Augmented Ambient Intelligence: Step into Your Creative Flow, Hands-Free, Fully Immersive”
SPH Media, Singapore, “Berita Harian’s Digital Transformation”
Category 20: BEST USE OF VISUAL JOURNALISM AND STORYTELLING TOOLS
Regional Brands
Göteborgs-Posten, Gothenburg, Sweden, “Year of the Climate”
Newsday, Melville, United States, “Sex Trafficking on Long Island”
Stampen Media, Hamlstad, Sweden, “The Gangs That Rule Halmstad”
Verlag der Tagesspiegel, Berlin, Germany, “Interactive Database on the AfD”
Vocento, Madrid, Spain, “Visual Reconstruction: How the Nightclub Fire Started in Murcia”
National Brands
DMG Media, London, United Kingdom, “Deep Dive”
La Nación, Vicente López, Argentina, “S.O.S. Animals of Argentina”
Media24, Johannesburg, South Africa, “Final Footsteps: The Kirsten Kluyts Murder”
The New York Times, United States, “The New York Times Behind the Reporting”
Quint Digital, Noida, India, “Patriarchy’s Silent Hand: The Hidden Pressure on Women to Become Organ Donors”