Four newspapers named 'World’s Best-Designed™'
1,237 other winners chosen from a field of 12,760 entries

North Kingstown, R.I. — Four newspapers were named the “World’s Best-Designed™” by the Society for News Design during the judging of Category One of the 24th Annual “Best of Newspaper Design™” competition. The winners were chosen from a field of 351 newspapers from 37 countries.

In the judging of the 20 other categories in the general competition, there were 11 Gold medals, 77 Silver medals and seven Judges’ Special Recognition awards.

The competition, co-sponsored by SND and Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, recognizes excellence in newspaper design, graphics and photography. The judging took place over nine days in early February at the Newhouse School in Syracuse, N.Y. A near-record 12,760 entries were received in all categories.

It took more than 90 people, including 26 judges, to make the international event work. Associate Professor C. Marshall Matlock has been director of the judging for the past 15 years for the school and SND.

After four days of judging, the four “World’s Best-Designed Newspapers™” for the 24th Edition are:

• Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Frankfort, Germany
  (Non-daily Sunday paper with circulation over 175,000 category)

• The Independent on Sunday, London, England
  (Non-daily Sunday paper with circulation over 175,000 category)

• Récord, a new newspaper in México City, México
  (Daily with circulation over 25,000 and under 75,000 category)

• Die Zeit, Hamburg, Germany
  (Non-daily, circulation over 175,000 category)

The judges for the World’s Best-Designed Newspaper™ category were:

• Charles “Chas” Brown, design director, The Dallas Morning News, Texas
• Olga Lamas, designer, Cases i Associats, S.A., Barcelona, Spain
• Greg Leeds, executive art director, The Wall Street Journal
• Rexanna Lester, executive editor, Savannah Morning News, Ga.
• Felix Soh, deputy editor, The Straits Times Press, Singapore.

The top five winners in all 21 categories were El Mundo, Madrid, Spain, and its magazines, with 57 total awards and The New York Times and its magazine with 48 awards, followed by The Boston Globe and The Hartford Courant with 35 each, and Clarín, Buenos Aires, Argentina, with 31. Of the 30 countries and 200 newspapers winning awards, the U.S. led with 653, followed by 126 for Spain, 77 for México, 62 for Canada, 51 for Sweden, and 47 for Portugal. Other winners included papers from Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, Costa Rica, The Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, the Republic of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, The Philippines, Australia, Italy, Turkey, Greece and countries in Scandinavia and Great Britain.

The 21 judges for the general competition were:
James De Vries, De Luxe & Associates, Australia; Michelle Deal-Zimmerman, The Sun, Baltimore, Md.; Sergio Fernández, La Gaceta, Argentina; Ed Gabel, Time Magazine; Kim Germovsek Crow, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pa.; William J. Gugliotta, The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio; Lorena Iñiguez, Los Angeles Times, Calif.; Adriana Libreros-Purcell, Asbury Park Press, N.J.; Dr. Lawrence Mason, Jr., Syracuse University, N.Y.; Ann McGettigan, Daily News, N.Y.; Christine S. McNeal, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wis.; José Merino, Arizona Daily Star; Gert Keil Nielsen, Ekstrabladet, Copenhagen, Denmark; Tom Penix, The Register-Guard, Eugene, Ore.; Tom Peyton, South Florida Sun-Sentinel; Mark Porter, The Guardian, London, England; Katherine Roberts Edenborg, University of Minnesota; Chris Sloan, National Geographic Magazine; Mark Thompson-Kolar, Ann Arbor News, Mich.; Juan Velasco, 5W Infographic USA, N.Y.; and Dan Zedek, The Boston Globe, Mass.

The full results of the competition with images of winners are posted on SND’s Web site at http://www.snd.org/contests/contest24.lasso

SU’s SND student affiliate will also include information beginning this summer at a site that is expected to go “live” in July. This site will be linked to the Newhouse Web site once it is completed.

The top award winners will be honored at the Society’s Annual Workshop and Exhibition in Washington, D.C. Sept. 6, 2003. Winners will be showcased with judges’ comments in the 24th Edition book, "The Best of Newspaper Design™," which is scheduled to be released in September.

The Newhouse School will be honored at the workshop for its involvement and the hosting of this international competition. Details of this event are still being worked out. To attend the workship In Washington, D.C. Sept. 4 - 6 register at
http://www.snd.org/.

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