Cape Town - Independent Media’s High School Quiz bagged the award for the “best use of an event to build a new brand”
at the annual International News Media Association (Inma) Global Media Awards, held in New York last week.
Inma is the world’s leading provider of global best practices for news media companies looking to grow revenue, audience and brand amid profound market change.
Independent Media had tough competition in its category with media groups from India, the US and Puerto Rico also vying for first place.
“Spurred on by the highly successful Cape Argus School’s Quiz, our events division repackaged the concept and rolled it out to schools in Gauteng and KZN. The competition had no barriers to entry and kept the youth engaged in current affairs via our newspapers,” said Independent’s corporate communication department.
The Metropolitan Media Company in India placed second for their “Educating Youngsters to Stay Away from Drugs - VK Drug Free Mangalore Campaign”, while Gannet in the US came third for their “USA Today Network High School Sports Awards”.
Independent Media also walked away with the Global Media Award for “Best In Africa” where judges selected the best of six world regions from the finalists.
“This is a phenomenal achievement. In a world of declining newspaper sales, this initiative cements our future, audiences and growth as a newspaper,” said Quinton Mtyala, the Cape Argus’s acting assistant editor.
“It’s fascinating, after being involved myself and interacting with the youngsters, to see how keen they are to just get in and read newspapers.
“For me, when you think of pupils today, you think of them being on their phones and on their tablets, but through the quiz more people are getting to read the newspaper because it’s not just these kids - it rubs off on their families as well.”
We won an award!!! *whoop whoop* #INMA19 @IndyMediaSA @INMAorg pic.twitter.com/0IOsdPADfw