SND40 Best of News Design: Day One Recap

  • February 24, 2019
Society for News Design

Judges reviewed more than 3,000 entries on the first day of the Best of News Design Creative Competition. The judges awarded eight gold medals, 13 silver medals, and 255 awards of excellence in the first 12 hours at the Coliseum in St. Petersburg.

The New York Times leads the medal count with five golds and four silvers. The NYT won gold for these entries:

  • Coverage of the special counsels’ investigation into possible collusion between Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia
  • Poignant portraits of Nigerian schoolgirls who were previously abducted by Boko Haram
  • Staff photography portfolio
  • The New York Times Magazine’s photo series Great Performers
  • The New York Times Magazine’s excerpt from “The Mars Room” in features pages

Three other gold medals went to:

  • The Star Tribune’s special report on rape in special news topics
  • Dagens Nyheter’s photograph of a wheelchair bodybuilder
  • National Geographic’s exhaustive story about a young woman who received a face transplant after a suicide attempt

Silver medals went to these entries:

  • The New York Times’ photo of a severely malnourished child caught in the Saudi Arabian war in Yemen
  • The New York Times’ portrait of an abducted Nigerian schoolgirl who now attends a private university with other freed students
  • The New York Times Magazine’s photo series on the process of manufacturing pencils
  • The New York Times’ photo page design of the Nigerian schoolgirls who were previously abducted by Boko Haram
  • The Washington Post’s coverage of Stanley Cup champions
  • The Washington Post’s photo series “The New Arctic Frontier”
  • Der Tagesspiegel’s wraparound celebrating gay pride
  • Bild am Sonntag’s breaking news coverage of the rescue operation for the soccer team in Thailand
  • Los Angeles Times’ coverage of catastrophic wildfires
  • Dagens Nyheter’s photo of a sunken mosque after an earthquake in Palu, Indonesia, was followed by three tsunamis
  • Die Zeit’s photo page design that asks recent refugees to Germany, “What is the most German object you have?”

Of more than 100 entries in the World’s Best Designed Newspaper competition, the judges have narrowed the first cut down to about 28 papers.