Winners of Ifra XMA Cross Media Awards 2006 announced

Comments Michael Heipel, project manager of the Ifra XMA Cross Media Awards 2006 competition at Ifra, "From small newspapers, such as the Belgian Grenz-Echo up to the Japanese giant Nihon Keizai Shimbun (NIKKEI), from Kenya to Ecuador and from Malta to the USA: the entries for the Ifra XMA Cross Media Awards 2006 competition show the wide range of media channels that newspaper publishing houses have at their disposal today to attract their readers and users."

The Ifra XMA 2006 winners are:

Category A (small newspapers with circulations below 100,000 copies daily):

1st place: Saarbrücker VerlagService GmbH (20cent saar), Germany
2nd place: E. Holterdorf GmbH & Co. KG (Die Glocke), Germany
3rd place: Grenz-Echo AG, Belgium

Category B (medium-sized newspapers with circulations between 100,000 and 250,000 copies daily):

1st place: S.A. La Nación, Argentina
2nd place: Vocento S.A. (El Correo), Spain
3rd place: Vecernij List d.d., Croatia

Category C (large-sized newspapers with circulations above 250,000 copies daily):

1st place: Guardian Media Group plc, U.K.
2nd place: Nihon Keizai Shimbun Inc (NIKKEI), Japan
3rd place: New York Times Digital, U.S.A.

Comments Jochen Dieckow, a member of the international jury who heads up business and new media research at Ifra, Germany, "Although in the end there were only nine winners, it would be wrong to speak in terms of losers in relation to the other projects. All participating publishing houses reported increased advertising and reach. All those involved in the evaluation process expressed the pleasure they took in viewing and assessing the projects in depth.

"It is in any case worthwhile to go and take a look at all projects, as the Ifra XMA Cross Media Awards competition is full of many large and small ideas that can serve as a source of inspiration both for future major events as well as for the 'daily work'."

The winners will be presented to the public in a special display at IfraExpo in Amsterdam (9 -12 October 2006). They will receive their trophies during a gala dinner on 11 October. The winning entries, as well as all other 56 entered projects, can be viewed at www.ifra.com/xma. Documentation of the winning projects, with comments of the jury, is available there as an ePaper.

International jury

The jury comprised ten acknowledged newspaper and media experts from Germany, Greece, Italy, South Africa, Sweden, UK and the US:

• Sergio Acciarino, Direttore Diffusione, Corriere dello Sport, Italy;
  
• Annelies van den Belt, new media director, Telegraph Group, UK;
  
• Sven-Olof Bodenfors, chairman and founder, Forsman & Bodenfors, Sweden;
  
• Mats Dicklén, sales director, Mediaedge:CIA, Sweden;
  
• Jochen Dieckow, business and new media research, Ifra, Germany;
  
• Dr Mario García, CEO and founder, Garcíamedia, US;

  Russel Hanly, CEO, Media24 Digital, South Africa;

• Constantine Kamaras, CEO, Sportline.gr, Greece;
  
• Dr Dietmar Schantin, director of Newsplex, Ifra, Germany;
  
• Volker Schütz, Chefredakteur, Horizont, Germany.

The Ifra XMA Cross Media Awards 2006 are sponsored by von dpa, Kodak, Protec and UPM and supported by Escenic and MediaSpan. Media partners are Ifra newspaper techniques and Horizont.

The competition will be organised again in 2007, with the focus to be on cross-media advertising campaigns that newspaper publishing houses have realised for their advertisers.