Norway's VG big winners at Digital Media Europe Awards

Winners of the Digital Media Europe Awards in London last night

VG, the Norwegian tabloid previously known as Verdens Gang, walked away from yesterday's Digital Media Europe Awards in London with two awards and two special mentions for their innovations in digital publishing.

Teams from the news outlet won first prize in the Best Outstanding New Project category and Best Reader Engagement category for food site Godt.no and their coverage of the World Chess Championship 2013 respectively.

"In ten months we've become the biggest food site in Norway," Camilla Bjørn, editor of VG niche sites, told Journalism.co.uk of Godt.no, which provides recipes alongside editorial content and allows users to save recipes from a network of food bloggers. "It's all about helping people finding smart things to eat and smart commercial solutions with that."

VG also received a special mention in the Best Data Visualisation Project and Best in Tablet Publishing categories. In March, Torry Pedersen, VG's editor-in-chief, spoke at another conference about how the outlet innovates online while maintaing a strong print business.

Another Norwegian tabloid, Dagbladet, won first prize in Data Visualisation for their project Null Ctrl, an interactive to help readers better understand internet security.

"We had a huge number of readers who were not prepared to digest that kind of information," Audun Aas, the web designer behind the project, told Journalism.co.uk. "They didn't understand what it really meant. So we made small features detailing all the different types of vulnerabilities and exposed systems that we came across.

"I think we really got the point across and the jury obviously agrees."

The first Czech tablet-only weekly publication, Dotyk, or 'The Touch', launched last year, was awarded first prize in Tablet Publishing.


Screenshot from Dotyk, the Czech tablet-only weekly publication

The BBC and the Guardian were also commended for their work in the digital space, with the BBC winning Best Use of Online Video for "How to put a human on Mars", and the Guardian was named Best News Website.

"I think it's been an amazing year for us with the Snowden story and the NSA," Jonathan Haynes, the Guardian's web news editor, told Journalism.co.uk, "how much that has been followed throughout the world and the implications that has had.

"There's been a lot of focus on European implications from that's been very strong for us, as well as our wonderful news journalism that we do day in, day out in London, New York, Sydney and the rest of the world."

The awards were held in London on the second day of the Digital Media Europe conference in Europe. The full list of winners is listed below and Journalism.co.uk's coverage of the conference so far can be found here.

Best Data Visualization Project

1st place: DB Medialab (Dagbladet) - "Null CTRL/Zero CTRL", Norway
Special mention: Verdens Gang - "The fairytale of the Soria Moria government", Norway

Best Digital Advertising Campaign

1st place: Anzeigen & Marketing Kleine Zeitung - "General Election", Austria
Special mention: Agora - "Trasy Magiczne", Poland

Best in Tablet Publishing

1st place: Tablet Media - "DOTYK, The First Tablet-only Weekly", Czech Republic
Special mention: Verdens Gang - "VG+", Norway

Best Mobile Service

1st place: Omni - "Omni", Sweden
Special mention: Russmedia Digital - "VOL.AT Mobile Service Strategy", Austria

Best News Website

1st place: Guardian News & Media - "The Guardian", UK
Special mention: Telekurier Online Medien - "KURIER Website", Austria

Best Outstanding New Project

1st place: Verdens Gang - "godt.no", Norway
Special mention: Times Newspapers - "The Times", UK

Best Reader Engagement

1st place: Verdens Gang - "World Chess Championship 2013", Norway
Special mention: Aftenposten - "What has the wealth done with us?", Norway

Best Use of Online Video

1st place: BBC News - "How to put a human on Mars", UK
Special mention: Anzeigen & Marketing Kleine Zeitung - "General Election", Austria

Homepage thumbnail image: By Jon Olav on Flickr. Some rights reserved.

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