South China Morning Post wins Jury Commendation for World Young Reader Prize in global WAN-IFRA Awards

Hong Kong, August 19, 2011 – The South China Morning Post is proud to announce that Young Post has been awarded a Jury Commendation in the Public Service category for this year’s World Young Reader Prize.

The World Young Reader Prizes, organised by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), are awarded annually to innovative newspapers that have devised the best project or activity in areas of young reader development. WAN-IFRA is the global organisation of the world’s press, representing more than 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3,000 companies in more than 120 countries.

The award is bestowed on Young Post’s Heritage Detective series, in which schools were given the opportunity to field teams of reporters and photographers to develop stories. The best stories were published on Young Post’s front pages between May and June 2011.

The Jury of the award commented that “This was a great way to get young people with a heavy and academic workload out of the classroom and into their communities to find out about their heritage. It provided them with an opportunity to practise skills they do not normally have the chance to hone at school. It is impressive that the teams participated with no incentive other than to find out more about their heritage and get their stories published in the paper. We really liked the idea of assigning young reporters to gather their own information. We think that encouraging students to create teams is an excellent idea — it makes them more willing to participate and is likely to provide better results on average than a writing competition focused on individual authors. This project provided a great opportunity for young people to find out about and interact with their elders from a different perspective. It showed them that they have important lessons to learn from the older generation. It also helped them to understand the importance of heritage preservation and to respect the history of their city, an important value in this age of modernisation.”

Cliff Buddle, Acting Editor-in-Chief remarked that “Young Post is an English educational tool that is fun and stimulating. I am delighted that the Young Post team has been given this prestigious award amongst global news organisations. The award recognises their great work, and the ability of Young Post to capture the imagination of and to actively engage with our young readers.”



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About SCMP Group Ltd and South China Morning Post

SCMP Group Limited (SEHK: 583) is a leading newspaper and magazine publisher in Asia. Its flagship publication, South China Morning Post, is Hong Kong’s world renowned English language newspaper and has the city’s most affluent and influential readership. First published in 1903, the newspaper has developed an enviable reputation for authoritative, influential and independent reporting on Hong Kong, China and the rest of Asia. Available in print, iPad™ and online through scmp.com and e-reader editions, South China Morning Post reaches a global audience with daily breaking news, insightful analysis and opinion, multimedia articles and interactive forums. Striving to maintain the highest standards among the world’s quality newspapers, the South China Morning Post receives constant international recognition. It received 60 awards in 2010 for excellence in editorial, marketing and technical capability. Other publication titles of the Group include the Sunday Morning Post, the Chinese editions of Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar and CosmoGirl! magazines. For more information, please visit us at www.scmpgroup.com.

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