On Thursday evening, the winners of the 2025 INMA Global Media Awards were announced. Evert van Dijk, director of journalism at Mediahuis Netherlands region North, accepted the award in New York from Mediahuis CEO and president of INMA, Gert Ysebaert. The readers’ campaign Help Ukraine Now won first prize in the category ‘Best Public Relations or Community Service Campaign’. The campaign, from Dagblad van het Noorden, Leeuwarder Courant, and Friesch Dagblad, raises money to help the people of Ukraine. In three years, the campaign raised more than 1.7 million euros.
“This award is a nice recognition for our work. I sincerely hope that other news media will be inspired to take action as well. As journalists we are independent, but that does not mean we have to sit on our hands when people need our help,” said Evert van Dijk.
In fact, Mediahuis won two awards in the ‘Best Idea to Grow Advertising Sales’ category. Mediahuis Ireland took second prize in this category (national brands) for ‘Reclick’, a new way to enable retargeting with first-party data in the post-cookie world. Mediahuis Netherlands region North came second in the same category (regional brands) with ‘Uitgelicht’, the visual, full-screen front page of its apps. The ads placed in it generate three times as much revenue as regular ads.
A number of other Mediahuis entries fell just short of the prizes, but may add an ‘honourable mention’ to their name.
- Mediahuis Netherlands Region North, Best Idea to Encourage Reader Engagement. The digital version of Thinker, a classic paper Christmas puzzle, demonstrates with 139% more active users how print traditions can enhance digital growth and engagement.
- Mediahuis Ireland, Best New Audio/Voice Product or Feature. The Irish Independent launched the successful sports podcast “Indo Sport”, reaching a new, younger audience.
- Mediahuis Netherlands Region West, Best Product Iteration. The ‘Being Ikea and Beating the Kitchen Memo Effect’ campaign focused on a mobile-first experience to improve reader engagement and subscription conversions resulting in great success.
- Mediahuis Netherlands, Best Product Iteration. The ‘Breaking Barriers’ campaign demonstrates how a new pay wall creates more subscribers, more ad revenue and more journalistic impact.
The INMA Global Media Awards are prestigious international awards presented by the International News Media Association (INMA) since 1937. At the awards ceremony on Thursday, May 22, at the Edison Ballroom in New York, winners were announced in 20 categories, divided into national and regional segments. These categories focus on highlighting innovation and best practices within news brands, focusing on the best use of media capabilities, subscriptions, product development, advertising and commerce, artificial intelligence and innovation in editorial. In 2025, the competition received 839 entries from 286 leading news brands from 49 countries.
