SND announces 971 awards, including five ‘World’s Best-Designed™ Newspapers’

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. – In its 30th annual “The Best of Newspaper Design™ Creative Competition,” the Society for News Design has named four newspapers from Europe and one from Mexico as “World’s Best-Designed Newspapers™.” The Society issued 966 other design awards for journalism published in 2008. The winners came from 10,725 entries submitted by 346 daily and nondaily newspapers in 43 countries.

Search the entire winner database here.

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The total number of entries was down 28 percent from last year, yet 85 of the entering newspapers did not enter last year. For the first time, half of the entries and winners came from outside the United States. Three of the four Gold medals and 25 of the 42 Silvers went to non-U.S. papers.

This year’s “World’s Best-Designed Newspapers™” are:

• Akzia, Moscow, Russia, biweekly, circulation 200,000
• Eleftheros Tipos, Athens, Greece, daily, circulation, 86,000
• Expresso, Paço de Arcos, Portugal, weekly, circulation 120,000
• The News, Mexico City, daily, circulation 10,000
• Welt am Sonntag, Berlin, weekly, 400,000

Akzia and Expresso were honored last year as “World’s Best-Designed Newspapers™.” This year, Expresso also received a Gold medal for its 2008 redesign.

In the 18 other competition categories, judges awarded four Gold medals, 42 Silver medals, three Judges’ Special Recognitions and 919 Awards of Excellence.

C. Marshall Matlock, competition and judging director for the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and the competition committee director for SND, said that in this time of news-industry turmoil, “judges are, more than ever, looking at design from the reader’s perspective. As the news judging team wrote, ‘The work that we chose to honor, whether through an excellent big idea, a disciplined small touch, a great headline, photograph or informational graphic, was able to give readers an extra gift.’ ”

As part of an overall statement, the judges said,”We hope whether you are a publisher or page designer, graphic artist or photographer, that you will see our choices not only represent the strongest fundamentals of journalism, but also illustrate that time-tested values, crystallized to give readers a strong, authoritative product, can help newspapers remain relevant and successful.”

The competition, co-sponsored by SND and the Newhouse School, recognizes excellence in newspaper design, graphics and photography. Judges from around the globe met in two stages over two long weekends in February at Syracuse University in New York. Dennis Varney, sports designer and copy editor for the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader, served as the 30th Edition competition coordinator.

In addition to the Gold for Expresso, the National Post in Toronto earned two Gold medals for news page design and illustration. The New York Times won a Gold and a Judges Special Recognition for a photo project on female circumcision.

The top winner in all 19 categories was the Los Angeles Times.

Of the 170 newspapers from 31 countries that earned awards, the United States led with 487 awards, followed by 108 for Canada, 46 for Mexico, 37 for the United Arab Emirates, 35 for Germany, 34 for Spain, 33 for Sweden, 32 for Argentina, 23 each for Turkey and Brazil, 19 for Portugal, 17 for China, and 11 for Denmark.

Other award winners included newspapers from Australia, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, England, Finland, Greece, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan, and Venezuela. The 10,725 entries were down from last year’s 14,818, and from the high of 15,020 entries in 2005.

Judges honored 971 winners, compared with 1,166 in 2008. Newspapers of less than 50,000 circulation earned 53 awards in this year’s competition. The five judges for the “World’s Best-Designed Newspapers™” category, who made their choices Feb. 13-16, were:

• Michael Crozier, Design Director, Crozier Associates Ltd, London
• Marco Grieco, art director, Expresso, Paço de Arcos, Portugal
• Michael Keegan, Keegan Design, Reston, Va.
• Mary Nesbitt, managing director, The Readership Institute, Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill.
• Bobbie Roessner, managing editor, The Hartford (Conn.) Courant

The 27 judges for the general competition, who met Feb. 7-9, were:

• Jeanie Adams-Smith, associate professor, Western Kentucky University
• Josh Awtry, assistant managing editor for online and presentation, Salt Lake Tribune, Salt Lake City
• Carlos Ayulo, design director, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
• Chiara Bautista, graphic artist, Arizona Daily Star, Tucson
• Jonathon Berlin, design director, Chicago Tribune
• Bonita Burton, deputy managing editor/presentation, Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel
• Denise Clifton, Director of visuals and news projects, Seattle Times
• Steve Cowden, staff artist, The Oregonian, Portland
• Ellen Dietrich, photo editor, Die Zeit, Hamburg, Germany
• Diego Zúñiga Garcia-Falces, art director, El Correo, Bilbao, Spain
• Martin Gee, art director, Oregon Business Magazine, Portland
• Jördis Guzman Bulla, Art Director, Welt am Sonntag, Berlin
• Hiroyuki Kimura, President, Tube Graphics, Tokyo
• Nikki Life, design director, St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times
• Scott Minister, art director, The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch
• Guillermo Munro, Gulf News, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
• Bill Pitzer, news graphics editor, The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer
• Robert Pope, Robert Pope Photography, Springfield Ill.
• Gun Ra°berg-Kjellerstand, editor in chief, Ulricehamns Tidning, Sweden
• Epha Riche, editor, MomsLikeMe.com, Indianapolis Star
• Carmen Riera, art director, Cadenas-Capriles, Caracas, Venezuela
• Chris Ross, design director, San Diego Union-Tribune
• Gorka Sampedro, graphics and illustration director, El Economista, Madrid, Spain
• Eric Seals, photo and video journalist, Detroit Free Press
• Guido Strotheide, designer, The Jacksonville (Ill.) Journal-Courier
• Anna Thurfjell, design director, Svenska Dagbladet, Stockholm
• Kevin Wendt, editor, The Huntsville (Ala.) Times

The winners are listed in a searchable database at http://www.snd.org/competitions/contest30.lasso

Images of the winning entries will be added in a few weeks. Coverage from both competition weekends can be seen at http://update.snd.org

The top award winners will be honored during the Society’s 31st Annual Workshop and Exhibition in Buenos Aires, Sept. 24-26, 2009. Winners and the judges’ comments will be showcased in the 30th Edition book, “The Best of Newspaper Design™,” available this fall.

The Society for News Design is an international professional organization with a mission to enhance communication around the world through excellence in visual journalism. The Society, founded in 1979, has 2,000 professional, educator and student members in 52 countries. To learn more, visit http://www.snd.org