All SND members belong to geographic regions, each represented by a regional director on the SND board.
Some members seek more formal local organizations, either as students or as professionals who share common interests or a common language. These groups may organize meetings, competitions or other events. To enable these activities, SND members may form student or professional affiliates.
Additionally, SND members in Regions 11 and 12 host a Facebook page for news design in Latin America.
Professional affiliates
SND currently has five professional affiliates, SNDS, SND/E, SND/DACH, SND/FR and SND Chinese. Affiliates create their own organizational structures and may charge affiliate dues in addition to the SND membership, but each affiliate is financially independent of SND.
SNDS was founded in Bergen, Norway, by 21 designers from 12 Scandinavian newspapers who gathered in 1985. Now 500 members strong, SNDS holds an annual meeting, sponsors the Best of Scandinavian News Design and European Front and Feature Page Design competitions, and publishes a quarterly SNDS Magazine. The president of SNDS is Anders Tapola, anders.tapola@smp.se.
Two years later, SND/E was founded in Spain at the first seminar on Press, Design and Computer graphics. SND/E conducts the annual Malofiej Awards for information graphics and holds an annual meeting, The Best of Journalism Design contest and conference and other events. The president of SND/E is Javier Errea, javier@erreacomunicacion.com.
The SND/DACH affiliate, founded in 1998, serves the German-speaking countries of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. They hold an annual meeting and other events. The president of SND/DACH is Stefan Knapp, stefan.knapp@design-news.de.
In 2005, French-speaking SND members formed SND/FR. Its president is Olivier Bourgeois, bourgeois@ifra.com.
In 2008, SND formed SND Chinese, an affiliate for designers at Chinese-language news organizations worldwide. The director for SND Chinese is Lily Lu.