Chennai: The Hindu Group won two golds and two silvers at WAN IFRA’s South Asian Digital Media Awards culminating in being named the Champion Publisher of the Year owing to the highest tally on the points table. The winners were honored virtually at the Digital Media India 2021 Conference yesterday. The awards are presented in recognition of outstanding work done by news publishers in digital media.
The Hindu #KeepTheHabit campaign won gold and silver in Best Native Advertising/Branded Content Campaign and Best in Audience Engagement, respectively. Sportstar’s website (sportstar.thehindu.com) won gold in Best in Lifestyle, Sports, Entertainment Website or Mobile Services and The Hindu’s website (thehindu.com) won a silver in Best Paid Content Strategy (incl. pay wall, membership, or crowd funding models). Among other winners were BBC News, Malayalam Manorama, Mathrubhumi, ABP, NDTV Convergence, TV18, The Quint, and others.
Speaking at the virtual ceremony and accepting the honor, L V Navaneeth, Chief Executive Officer, The Hindu Group, said, “I am extremely grateful and humbled to receive this recognition. I am receiving this on behalf of 2400 of my colleagues who have had an incredibly tough year and managed to put our products out and do a stellar job. What is doubly heartening is the overall quality of entries and the company we are in. It is great to be amongst this august body of work, congrats to all the winners, and thanks for inspiring us, we will continue to learn and strive harder.
What this demonstrates is, we have had a tough year as an industry, we have had challenges in operationally running our businesses and have been under enormous financial strain. But there has been no lockdown in our collective imagination to do good work, to push the envelope, and in our intent to contribute meaningfully to the communities we serve. We have prioritized the wellbeing of the constituents of our businesses over our own welfare and done a stellar job as an industry, and the industry should collectively feel proud about that. Given the year that has gone by, given what we have collectively brought to the table – I am extremely proud and privileged to be part of this fantastic industry and I am sure we will have far better days ahead for all of us.”
