The Society for News Design is proud to announce results from the 45th edition of the Best of News Design Creative Competition. Winners will be selected by 44 visual journalists who will gather in Minneapolis to assess the best work published in 2023. More than 35 organizations from around the world were represented in the makeup of the judging panel.
The competition is taking place from May 8-10, 2024 hosted by the Star Tribune in Minneapolis.
The Best of News Design Creative Competition honors excellence in visual storytelling, design and journalism produced in 2023. Winners will be announced live during the competition except for our highest honors, World’s Best Designed Newspaper, World’s Best Digital News Experience, World’s Best Digital Designer and Digital’s Best in Show, which will be announced the week following the competition.
Results
Below are our databases of 45th edition winners. Use the filter and sort functions to view awards by entry, publication or category. We will update the database periodically throughout judging. And make sure to follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to see gold medal winners!
Digital
SND45 recap
Best of Print News Design
The 45th Best of Print News Design Creative Competition ended with the jury of 26 judges awarding 21 gold medals, 1 Judges’ Special Recognition, 67 silver medals and 1,047 awards of excellence. The Washington Post’s American Icon series was awarded Best in Show.
DIE ZEIT and Weekendavisen were named the World’s Best Designed Newspapers. Judges named four newspapers as finalists for World’s Best Designed Newspaper: DIE ZEIT, Weekendavidsen, POLITIKEN, La Nacion.
The top 10 award-winning publications from SND45 were
- The New York Times
- Star Tribune
- The Washington Post
- Politico Europe
- DIE ZEIT
- National Geographic
- The Wall Street Journal
- South China Morning Post
- American City Business Journals
- Four-way tie (Rolling Stone Magazine, De Morgen, POLITIKEN, The Globe & Mail)
Best of Digital News Design
The 45th Best of Digital News Design Creative Competition ended with the panel of 17 judges awarding 12 gold medals, 36 silver medals, 116 bronze medals and 647 awards of excellence.
The New York Times was named World’s Best Designed for its information graphics portfolio. The finalists were The Pudding, The New York Times, La Nacion, Star Tribune, The Straits Times and Reuters.
Adolfo Arranz was named World’s Best Designer for his art direction/illustration portfolio. The finalists were Anna Boone and Katty Huertas.
The Best in Show winners were:
- Micro Newsroom: The Pudding for its Combination Portfolio
- Small Newsroom: The Marshall Project for “D&D on Death Row”
- Medium Newsroom: POLITIKEN for “This is how the phone is designed to steal your time.”
- Large Newsroom: The Washington Post for “The Blast Effect”
About the digital competition
The Society for News Design’s Best of Digital Design is a juried competition sponsored by the Society for News Design to recognize journalistic excellence in storytelling, graphics, social media and product design. The goal of the contest is to identify the best of journalism that pushes the boundaries of design and technology. By submitting, you help define the state of the art for our industry and all storytellers.
Awards
World’s Best Designed: Each year, the highest goal of this competition is to identify work that has fundamentally shifted or improved how news and information is delivered across digital platforms. This award has been given to websites and apps, but also to overall experiences or organizations.
World’s Best Designer: World’s Best Designer is given to the individual designer that has the strongest portfolio among all individual portfolio categories
Best in Show: SND Digital’s Best in show is meant to recognize the best individual entries from the entire competition. Best in Show awards are divided by organizational size to take those challenges into consideration. This year, we have:
- Best in Show for small organizations
- Best in Show for medium organizations
- Best in Show for large organizations
Gold Medals: Visual storytelling that defines the state of the art. These entries must stretch the limits of creativity both visually and technically. They must be groundbreaking in both form and fit — telling their story in the most powerful way imaginable. It should be perfect or as near as one can reasonably come. Any entry receiving this award should be held up as the gold standard for the design community.
Silver Medals: The aesthetic and technical proficiency of these entries should stretch the limits of the medium — representing an elevated level of execution and originality in pursuit of powerful storytelling. It should be nearly impossible to find anything deficient.
Bronze Medals: Recognizes visual storytelling at the leading edge of craftsmanship or innovation. These entries should demonstrate technical mastery, aesthetic mastery, or both. Entries receiving a Bronze Medal must have an elevated level of execution, originality or degree of difficulty.
Award of Excellence: Recognizes outstanding and excellent visual storytelling. These entries go beyond mere technical or aesthetic competency and may push the boundaries of originality and creativity.
The judges
A team of 17 judges was selected by the Digital News Design Competition Committee to evaluate each entry on how well it accomplishes its editorial and design objectives. SND strives for diversity in judges, who are journalism, new media and design experts from around the world. If judges have any apparent conflicts of interest on particular entries, they will not be assigned to evaluate those entries.
- Matthew Weber, Reuters
- Emilio Amade, EL MUNDO
- Katherine Lee, The New York Times
- Jasen Lo, The Philadelphia Inquirer
- Regina McCombs, University of Minnesota Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Comm
- Martina Ibáñez-Baldor, Los Angeles Times
- Joanne Lee, Rest of World
- Julia Janicki, AFP
- Matt Daniels, The Pudding
- Marcelo Duhalde, South China Morning Post
- Christopher DeLisle, ESPN
- Paula Friedrich, Politico
- Reem Akkad, Washington Post
- Emil Thorbjörnsson, The daily newspaper Information
- Sharon Denning, Dow Jones
- Megan McCrink, National Geographic
- Jamie Hutt, Star Tribune
About the competition committee
This year the Competition Committee was expanded to include 11 people from newsrooms across the country. The committee works on a variety of tasks, including choosing judges and deciding the categories of entry.
The Competition Committee includes: Anna Boone, Star Tribune Digital Designer; Heather Donahue, ESPN.com Creative Director; Brian Gross, Washington Post Deputy Design Director; Stephanie Hays, Washington Post News Designer; Yue Qiu, Bloomberg Graphics Deputy Managing Editor; Mary Freda, City of Crown Point Communications/Media Manager; Simon Scarr, Reuters; Stephanie Redding, American City Business Journals Senior Designer; Micah Fluellen, Los Angeles Times Designer and Art Director; Rebecca Pazos, The Straits Times Data Visualisation Editor
About the print competition
The Best of Print News Design competition is part of the 45th edition of the Best of News Design Creative Competition. SND invited 27 judges from around the globe to review nearly 2600 entries across 11 categories during three days of judging. The Best of Print News Design competition honors visual storytelling and design for editorial work produced in 2023.
Awards
World’s Best Designed: This is the highest honor that can be awarded to a publication or publications during the SND Creative Competition. The judging panel evaluates publications based on writing, visual storytelling, photography, headlines, use of resources, execution, voice and overall design from three complete editions. This honor is awarded outside of other categories where entries are in consideration for Awards of Excellence, Silver and Gold Medals.
Best in Show: This is the highest honor that can be awarded to a single entry during the SND Creative Competition. All Gold Medal winners are considered for this award at the conclusion of judging. Only one Best in Show may be given and 75 percent of the judging panel must agree in order for a Best in Show to be awarded. This is granted to the best single entry among all categories, apart from entries considered for World’s Best Designed.
Gold Medal: Granted for work that clearly stands out even among Silver Medal winners. It should be nearly impossible to find anything deficient in a gold-winning entry. These entries will define the state of the art.
Silver Medal: Granted for work that rises above excellence. The Silver Medal can be given for work that represents an elevated level of execution, originality of concept or high-end work done with a high degree of difficulty. Even among Award of Excellence winners, these entries should shine.
Award of Excellence: Granted for truly excellent work, going beyond mere technical or aesthetic competency. It honors outstanding entries for such things as being daring and innovative, even if they are less than 100 percent in every respect.
Judges’ Special Recognition: This honor can be awarded by a team of judges or by all judges for work that is outstanding in a particular respect not necessarily singled out by the Award of Excellence, Silver or Gold medals. It has been granted for such things as use of photography, use of informational graphics and use of typography throughout a body of work. This body of work may be a particular publication, a section or section by an individual or staff. The special recognition does not supplant any Award of Excellence, Silver or Gold medal and should be seen as an adjunct.
Judges
A team of 27 judges were selected by the Best of Print News Design Competition Committee to evaluate each entry on how well it accomplishes its editorial and design objectives. SND strives for diversity in judges, who are journalism, new media and design experts from around the world. If judges have any apparent conflicts of interest on particular entries, they will not be assigned to evaluate those entries.
- Tanya Ramirez-Ulrich, The Advocate and Times-Picayune
- Becca Guajardo, Houston Chronicle
- Ricardo Cervera, La República
- Joel Cadman, The Wall Street Journal
- Jan-Peter Thiemann, Die Zeit
- Jim Cooke, Los Angeles Times
- Cynthia Greer, The Philadelphia Inquirer
- Christine Ashack, The Washington Post
- Huy Truong, South China Morning Post
- Nicole Crowder, MSP Home & Design
- Richard Giliberto, The Age
- Jenn Tompkins, Texas Monthly
- Matthew Ericson, The New York Times
- Brian Britigan, Illustrator
- Arnau Busquets Guàrdia, POLITICO Europe
- C.J. Sinner, Star Tribune
- Clare Ramirez, The Hollywood Reporter
- Brooke Timmons, American City Business Journals
- Fernando Baptista, National Geographic
- Vanessa Wyse, Studio Wyse
- Wayne Kamidoi, The New York Times
- Raju Narisetti, McKinsey & Company
- Kris Viesselman, Consultant
- Bonita Miyagi, The Villages Daily Sun
- Sara Quinn, University of Minnesota
- Bill Gaspard, China Daily
About the competition committee
The Best of Print News Design Competition Committee includes 11 journalists from newsrooms across the United States and Canada. The committee oversees the direction of each year’s competition, selecting judges, facilitating the judging and maintaining the call for entries.
Greg Mees of the Star Tribune is Chair of SND Creative Competition’s Best of Print News Design and Tyler Remmel of the Washington Post is the 45th Best of Print News Design Competition Coordinator.
The Best of Print News Design Competition Committee includes: Tyler Remmel, Washington Post; Adam Rogers, Villages Daily Sun; Shaun Martin, American City Business Journals; Catie Peterson, American City Business Journals; Greg Mees, Star Tribune; Steve Zimmerman, Star Tribune; Josh Jones, Star Tribune; Allison Hong, Los Angeles Times; Nicole Vas, Los Angeles Times; Brad Needham, PMNA; Talia Trackim, Washington Post
Our volunteers
This year there were 14 volunteers from around the world. They include:
- Naasha Dotiwala, Gannett
- Brianna Schroer, Washington Post
- Stephanie Adeline, Straits Times
- Laila Milevski, Baltimore Banner
- Ava Isham, Michigan State University
- Zachary Balcoff, Michigan State University
- Andrew Siegfried, Michigan State University
- Angela Li, Pratt Institute
- Julia Greenwood, Ohio University
- Jake Lovett, Star Tribune
- Jake Steinberg, Star Tribune
- Madalyne Bird, Star Tribune
- Emily Wright, Washington Post
- Michelle Bloom, CoinDesk