Irish and South African newspapers win World Young Reader Prize

Posted by Anna-Maria Mende on August 23, 2005 at 12:02 PM

The Irish Independent and The Limpopo Mirror newspaper in South Africa have been jointly awarded the 2005 World Young Reader Prize by the World Association of Newspapers (WAN). The two winners could not be more different. The Independent has a daily circulation of 177,000, while the Limpopo Mirror is a weekly with a circulation of 8,000. The winning entries were both science projects.

In making the award to The Irish Independent, WAN said: "The science project, Eureka, clearly emerged at the top because of its creativity, evidence of commitment to the young and the impact it had on schools, the partner science centre and on the newspaper." Eureka is a science magazine for primary school students in the 8- to 12-year age group. It was published 20 times in the course of the school year, circulated with the newspaper to 720 primary schools, and was praised for its leading role in encouraging an interest in science among students all over Ireland. Sir Harry Kroto, a Nobel laureate in Chemistry, called it "a most impressive initiative to make young people aware of the true importance of science, engineering and technology to their everyday lives." The magazine provided a substantial net increase in circulation for the Independent on the Wednesdays that it was published - over 22,000 additional copies on those days.

About The Limpopo Mirror, WAN said, "this paper successfully meets the needs of its community by producing low-cost resources in a most effective way. We were especially impressed by the technology link in the project." Though a small weekly, the Mirror extended the reach of its "Science of Life" supplements by putting them on its web site and offering them without cost, to everyone, anywhere in the world. The supplements were designed to improve literacy and numerical skills for grades 1 through 3, but were used through grade 7 by students for whom English was not their first language, and for whom extra education material is difficult to obtain. The materials can be found here.

WAN awards the World Young Reader Prize annually to the newspaper or newspapers that devise the most innovative projects to develop young readership. This year's awards, supported by the Norwegian paper producer Norske Skog, will be presented at the WAN World Young Reader Conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to be held from 18 to 21 September.

Source: WAN Young Reader Award

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