The new contest will be divided into two categories, one for online or offline linear multimedia and the other for online interactive multimedia. Specialists in the industry will form a committee to nominate productions for each category.
The contest will run as a separate event from its annual press photography competition.
In a release the organisation said the decision to hold the awards reflected an awareness of "a broadening in demand beyond the still image in printed media".
"With this in mind, and as part of our mission to encourage high professional standards in photojournalism and to support professional press photography in all its aspects, World Press Photo has decided to initiate a contest for multimedia productions," managing director Michiel Munneke said in the release.
"The 2011 multimedia contest is set up separately from the annual press photography contest. Judging multimedia productions is a new venture for the organization, and in the first contest we will test definitions and procedures with the aim of refining them for future editions".
Members of the jury who will shortlist three productions per category include Claudine Boeglin, multimedia producer for Thomson Reuters Foundation in France and Andrew DeVigal, multimedia editor for the New York Times.
The first, second and third prize winners of the contest will be announced during the World Press Photo Awards Days in May and their work will be published on the World Press Photo website.
The recipient of the first prize will be awarded €5,000.
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