Fairfax Media’s leadership in digital news media and publishing innovation was recognised with 11 highly-coveted wins at the prestigious industry-run 2016 PANPA Newspaper of the Year Awards held on Friday night.
It was a clean sweep for Fairfax in the Digital Destinations of the Year category, with Digital News Site of the Year awarded to The Sydney Morning Herald(national/metropolitan), the Newcastle Herald (regional), and The Maitland Mercury (community).
The digital dominance continued with The Australian Financial Review’s iPad app winning Best Mobile Site or App; The Age's "The Big Sleep" named Best Niche/Specialty App or Microsite; and Financial Review's “AFR Innovation Surver” taking out Digital Publishing Innovation of the Year.
Fairfax’s newspapers also won high praise, with the Newcastle Herald winning Daily Newspaper of the Year in the regional category; AFR Weekend won Weekend Newspaper of the Year; and the Mandurah Mail and The Land were named Non-Daily Newspaper of the Year in their respective community and regional categories.
Fairfax’s print site at Ormiston won a Technical Excellence award for its Double-Width (community) printing work.
“Fairfax’s winning streak was such that some thought they were at ‘the Fairfax Media awards’ - but these awards aren’t some sort of company-run backslapping,” a Fairfax Media spokesperson said.
“We’re thrilled to have our peers and colleagues in the news media industry paying tribute to the genuine competitive edge that Fairfax has - particularly in digital news media - and the unmatched pace we are setting in delivering publishing innovation across Australia and New Zealand.
“The room erupted into the loudest of applauses for each and every Fairfax win - high praise which properly goes to all the people who work tirelessly to make Fairfax's newspapers and websites as great as they can be.
“These awards again prove that Fairfax has not skipped a beat in continuing to produce the very best journalism and quality content, in the most engaging ways - how today’s readers want it.”
