Polish Newspaper Wins Top World Young Reader Prize

Posted by Lauren Drablier on October 17, 2008 at 8:17 AM

The World Association of Newspapers presented its annual World Young Reader
Newspaper of the Year award Thursday (16 October) to the Polish daily Gazeta
Wyborcza for its successful initiatives to attract younger readers in a
country where half the population in under 35.

The newspaper, which received the award at the WAN Readership Conference in
Amsterdam, also won Jury Commendations for two projects: a tie-in for young
readers with the Euro 2008 football matches, and for a campaign that helped
readers protest against Chinese policies in Tibet.

"This is a total 'youth think' newspaper. They do everything right for young
people," said Aralynn McMane, Director of Young Reader Programmes at WAN, in
presenting the award.

Other winners to receive Young Reader Awards on Thursday were:

- "Le P'tit 5 minutes," the children's infographic page in Le Journal de
Montréal in Canada, in the Editorial category;

- The Rheinische Post in Germany, for its "News to Use" for young employees,
in the Newspapers in Education category;

- Independent Newspapers, Media 24, Avusa and Associated Independent Press
in South Africa, for their "National Teachers Strike Recovery Initiative",
in the Public Service category;

- The Express & Echo in the United Kingdom, for it's "Green Shoppers
Campaign," in the Brand category.

- The Lexington Herald Leader in the United States, for it's serialized
story project designed to teach children about US history, in a special
Literacy Category.

Jury Commendations and Special Mention honours were awarded to these
newspapers: 24Sata (Croatia), Braunschweiger Zeitung (Germany), Ekstra
Bladet (Denmark), l'Equipe (France), Irish Examiner (Ireland), Kakhetis Khma
(Georgia), Malayala Manorama (India), Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung (Germany),
O Dia (Brazil), and Zero Hora (Brazil),

Details of the winning entries can be found at
http://www.wan-press.org/nie/articles.php?id=1503 . The annual World Young
Reader Prizes, which WAN has awarded since 1998, are supported by the paper
manufacturer Norske Skog.

Rules for entering the 2009 prize competition can be found at
http://www.wan-press.org/nie/wyrp.php

The annual Readership Conference drew hundreds of publishers, editors,
marketers and other senior newspaper executives to Amsterdam to examine
strategies for building audiences on both print and digital channels.
Summaries of conference presentations can be found at
http://www.wan-press.org/amsterdam2008

The Paris-based WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry,
defends and promotes press freedom and the professional and business
interests of newspapers world-wide. Representing 18,000 newspapers, its
membership includes 77 national newspaper associations, newspaper companies
and individual newspaper executives in 102 countries, 12 news agencies and
11 regional and world-wide press groups.

Inquiries to: Larry Kilman, Director of Communications, WAN, 7 rue Geoffroy
St Hilaire, 75005 Paris France. Tel: +33 1 47 42 85 00. Fax: +33 1 47 42 49
48. Mobile: +33 6 10 28 97 36. E-mail: lkilman@wan.asso.fr