42nd World’s Best Designed – Digital

  • March 5, 2021
New York Times World's Best
800 533 Society for News Design


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A panel of 21 judges from the Society for News Design’s 42nd edition creative competition, the Best of Digital News Design, has selected The New York Times as the World’s Best-Designed™ Digital News Experience for ongoing trackers of the coronavirus pandemic.

Judges noted that the trackers best covered the dominant story of the year, and that keeping just one tracker updated daily is an enormous effort. The Times had several. 

“In a year full of so much uncertainty, I can’t think of a collection of pages that cut through the noise and provided clarity at a time that people needed it most,” said one judge “These pages were well designed, informative and provided an essential service. I think it’s more than deserving of this award.”

Copy of Gold Medal _ The New York Times 3
Copy of Gold Medal _ The New York Times 12
Copy of Gold Medal _ The New York Times 4

The New York Times submitted 12 different pages that tracked a wide variety of subjects related to COVID-19, including mask mandates, nursing home deaths, vaccinations and I.C.U. capacities.

Copy of Gold Medal _ The New York Times 11

In addition to their winning coronavirus trackers, the Times’ entries for line of coverage, long-form series, and graphics portfolio were also considered for the award. Other contenders included Reuters, for their art direction portfolio, and the Pudding, for their combination team portfolio.

SND has awarded World’s Best-Designed™ Digital News Experience since 2010, and The New York Times was also recognized as World’s Best in 2013 and 2017.

The Best of Digital News Design™ is a juried contest honoring visual and technical excellence in storytelling, graphics, social media and product design. The competition awarded 12 gold medals, 37 silver medals, 102 bronze medals, 551 awards of excellence to work from more than 120 publications. The winners came from 1,764 entries.