Jang Group wins Gold Award at Asian Media Awards

KARACHI: For the first time, Pakistan is among the top winners of the annual Asian Media Awards (AMA) presented in a gala ceremony in Manila by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).

While The Star (Malaysia), Jawa Pos (Indonesia), Gulf News (UAE) and Muscat Press (Oman) also clinched several trophies, this year’s Awards were marked by the achievements of first-time winners from Pakistan - Jang Media Group and Dawn.

Jang Media Group won the Gold Award in Best in Newspaper Marketing category for its ‘Jang Classifieds – Barson ka Aitmad’ campaign while Dawn Media Group clinched the Bronze in the same category.

The Silver Award was presented to the new Straits Times from Malaysia. This is the first time that newspapers from Pakistan have won at the Asian Media Awards and is a great achievement for Jang Media Group.

In this 15th edition, WAN-IFRA's Annual Asian Media Awards gathered 462 entries from 19 countries from all over Asia and the Middle East, competing for excellence in printing quality, design, infographics, photography, editorial content, Newspaper Marketing and Community Service. No fewer than 20 judges from international media companies evaluated the AMA entries in the past months in order to select the 39 awards winners who were honoured at Publish Asia's Gala Dinner. Judges included notably the World Press Photo Award winners Bill Frakes and Ian Grarup, former National Geographic Art Director Juan Velasco, the Evening Standard’s managing editor, Doug Wills and The Age’s editor in chief, Andrew Holden.

WAN-IFRA Asian Media Awards is an annual event, considered to be the most prestigious recognition of excellence for the news publishing industry in the region and aims to promote the highest standards in newspaper and magazine publishing. Other winners this year included newspapers from Myanmar, Oman, South Korea and the UAE.

WAN-IFRA is the global organisation of the world’s newspapers and news publishers. It represents more than 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3,000 companies in more than 120 countries. Its core mission is to defend and promote press freedom, quality journalism and editorial integrity and the development of prosperous businesses.