Youth-engaging projects should enter now for WAN-IFRA awards

The awards honour newspaper companies that have devised the best projects and activities during the past two years to promote newspaper reading and usage, on all platforms, among those under 25.

There are five category entries - Editorial, Making the News, Newspapers in Education (NIE), Public Service and Brand. Three special categories for 2011 are: "Connecting with Mobile," for a newspaper that has success in engaging the young via mobile telephone delivery; "The Natasa Prize for Printing Plants" for a newspaper printing plant action that teaches the young about journalism; and "Enduring Excellence," to honour young reader programmes that have continued delivering benefits for both the newspaper and the young for at least five years.

In addition, a new "Digital NIE Teacher" award will honour the educator who has created the best set of lesson plans that use the electronic version of the newspaper in class and with the best result for all parties involved.

"The increasing pervasiveness of interactive white boards and other classroom technologies has allowed more widespread study of the electronic versions of newspapers, especially when not all students have computers in class," said Aralynn McMane, WAN-IFRA executive director of young readership development.

Entries for all categories require creating a PowerPoint presentation following prize guidelines. For full details go to www.wan-ifra.org/worldyoungreaderprize.