Newspapers News South Africa

World Young Readers deadline nears

Newspapers have until 31 July 2008 to send in an entry for this year's World Young Reader prize. Now in its 11th year, the competition rewards great new initiatives for attracting young readers to newspapers.

The World Association of Newspapers will award excellence in five categories of activity :

  • Editorial strategy: A break-through newspaper content strategy
  • Newspapers in education: Use of the newspaper as a teaching tool
  • Public service: An effective public service project in areas such as press freedom, youth civic involvement, etc.
  • Brand: Projects that improve a newspaper brand's relationship with the young.
  • Newspaper & literacy (new category): An effective project that supports the basic ability to read and write

Winners will receive a stipend of 1500 Euros and recognition of their successful initiatives by the global newspaper industry. The prize is sponsored by Norske Skog of Norway, one of the world's leading suppliers of newsprint.

Prizes will be presented at the WAN Readership Conference and Expo, to be held on 16 and 17 October in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Last year's winners were La Prensa Grafica of El Salvador, which took the overall World Young Reader Newspaper of the Year prize and won in the editorial category, the Patriot News in the US state of Pennsylvania in the Newspapers in Education category, and Gazeta Wyborcza in Poland in the public service category.

WAN awarded other jury commendations and special mention awards to newspapers in Bulgaria (Borba), Brazil (Zero Hora), Namibia (Republikein), Russia (Delovoy Peterburg), Spain (Diario de Navarra), Venezuela (Urbe) and the US (Denver News Agency and the New York Daily News).

To enter, send a PowerPoint presentation in English that describes your project and its impact (under 5MB by email or 15MB maximum by post).

For more information and details on where to send your entry, go to www.wan-press.org/worldyoungreaderprize.

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