The New York Times’ Truth Is Hard’ multi-media campaign won the pestigious INMA Global Media Awards “Best in Show” held Monday at the INMA’s 88th Annual World Congress in Washington, D.C.

Produced by the International News Media Association, the Global Media Awards were presented before more than 400 participants attending the INMA World Congress of News Media at the Mead Center for American Theater in Washington, D.C.

A news report sourced from the INMA News Blog and filed by a Senior Editor of the INMA, Dawn McMullan, indicated that during the ceremony, 40 first-place winners were unveiled across 20 categories.

The awards were aimed at energising news brands, creating products, engaging audiences, developing customer insights, growing advertising revenue, and instilling innovation. Entrants were judged in two groups: global/national brands and regional/local brands. INMA has presented awards for media excellence since 1937.

The 2018 Global Media Awards competition garnered 830 entries from 220 media companies in 39 countries. Participants included newspaper media, magazine media, digital media, television media, and radio media.

An international panel of 50 executives from 20 countries selected 195 finalists, and from those the first place category winners were announced at today’s Washington, D.C., awards ceremony.

Seven companies won multiple first-place awards. Sweden’s MittMedia took home three top prizes, while six others garnered two first places: Grupo RBS from Brazil, Jagran Prakashan from India, News Corp from Australia, VG from Norway, USA Today Network and The Wall Street Journal from the United States.

“If there were emerging themes among this year’s Global Media Awards winners, it would be about communicating the values held by news brands amid the misinformation explosion and the rise of algorithms, data, and machine learning in the everyday running of a media company,” said Earl J. Wilkinson, executive director and CEO of INMA. “This year’s competition was intensely competitive with a record number of entries that provoked debate among judges on what defines success – the precise argument happening at INMA member companies.”

Regional winners announced include, Best in Africa: Ads24, South Africa, “Ads24 Presents Food for Thought”; Best in Asia/Pacific, Regional/Local Brands: News Corp Australia, “News ADvance Program”; Best in Asia/Pacific, Global/National Brands: South China Morning Post, “Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund JumpStarter”; and Best in Europe, Regional/Local Brands: MittMedia, Sweden, “User Activity Tracking Map”.

Others are, Best in Europe, Global/National Brands: Aftenposten, Norway, “Front Page Reinvented: The Algorithm That Supports Our Journalistic Mission”; Best in Latin America: Grupo RBS, Brazil, “Pelas Ruas: Innovation, Collaboration and Solutions in the Hands of the Community”; and Best in North America, Regional/Local Brands: LNP Media Group, United States, “The Caucus, a Watchdog Publication.”

Similarly honoured are, Best in North America, Global/National Brands: The New York Times, United States, “Truth Is Hard”; Best in South Asia, Regional/Local Brands: Hindustan Times, India, “Hindustan Times Palate Fest”; and Best in South Asia Global/National Brands: Jagran Prakashan, India, “957 Pages from a Daughter’s Diary”

The International News Media Association (INMA) is a global community of market-leading news media companies reinventing how they engage audiences and grow revenue in a multi-media environment.