Digital Publishing Awards

2023 Winners

Congratulations to all of the winners!

AOP Awards - Individual Excellence Awards

Editor of the Year

WINNER: Tom Ravenscroft

Entered by: Dezeen

Tom was the standout visionary in this category and it’s clear that he’s been able to use that strong vision to energise his team during a potentially difficult and challenging time for the business.

Journalist of the Year

WINNER: Wendell Steavenson, 1843 Magazine

Entered by: The Economist

All the judges agreed that Wendell excels as an investigative journalist – putting herself in the middle of dangerous situations to report the news and get voices heard. Her work clearly resonates with the 1843 audience – building readership as well as winning press awards.

HIGHLY COMMENDED: Mark Ogden

Entered by: ESPN

Mark goes above what you might expect in sports journalism – moving sports “from the back page to the front page” and ensuring that important stories are told.

Rising Star

WINNER: Ralph Karumazondo

Entered by: ESPN

Ralph has had great success launching TikTok content for ESPN – gaining millions of views with his creative and confident approach to interviewing and presenting for a younger audience. As one judge said, Ralph may well be gracing our TV screens in future and so “rising star” is absolutely fitting.

HIGHLY COMMENDED: Albert Bynorth

Entered by: Mail Metro Media

Albert’s rise through the ranks at MailMetro over the past three years – having started as a 16-year-old apprentice – is hugely impressive! He’s earned his promotions and is a great example to anyone entering digital publishing.

Sales Person of the Year

WINNER: Harry Rich

Entered by: News UK

Harry stood out in this category for his initiative and his passion for programmatic. His desire to upskill the commercial business in programmatic was impressive and no mean feat – and his results prove his effective contribution to the business.

The AOP Award for Inspiring Local Journalism

Sponsored by:

WINNER: Anna Whittaker, Notts TV

Anna used her platform and journalism skills to drive the change and make a real difference in her local community – showing how great local, digital journalism can drive a story to the top of the agenda.

HIGHLY COMMENDED: Katy Rink, My Shrewsbury Magazine

Entered by: My Shrewsbury Magazine

Katy really impressed the judges with her one-woman operation covering local news and entertainment in Shrewsbury, with a smart grasp of social media.

Advertising Operations Team of the Year

WINNER: The Telegraph Campaign Planning And Operations Team

Entered by: Telegraph Media Group

The jury were impressed by the approach taken to a brand safety review and also by the strong results shown in this entry from a very small team.

Audience Development Team of the Year

Sponsored by:

WINNER: The Times And The Sunday Times

Entered by: News UK

This innovative, pro-active team works closely with editorial colleagues to showcase their best journalism and elevate content features. Their smart and sometimes ruthless approach to prioritising key audience channels really delivered results and good subscription growth.

Editorial Team of the Year: B2B

WINNER: Campaign

Entered by: Haymarket Media Group

The Campaign team have been bravely addressing key issues in the media and advertising industry at a time when change is required – particularly around the gender pay gap and racial equality. They’ve provided market-leading and distinctive analysis that cuts through the clutter. The results they’ve achieved demonstrates their clear success across all the criteria in this category.

HIGHLY COMMENDED: Travel Gossip News

Entered by: Travel Gossip

The jury were impressed by how this small team work so effectively across multiple touchpoints and platforms

Editorial Team of the Year: Consumer

WINNER: BBC Good Food And Olive Magazine

Entered by: Immediate Media

This team impressed the jury by their success at building audience engagement and audience numbers – through their successful use of TikTok, through upskilling the team in creating video, and by capturing the zeitgeist with their focus on the cost-of-living crisis.

Product Development Team of the Year

WINNER: PinkNews

The jury were impressed by the strong focus on accessibility and mental health concerns in their development of the user experience – the team also shifted domain, delivered sustainability improvements and, through all this change, delivered year-on-year growth.

Sales Team of the Year

WINNER: Commercial Team - HELLO! / HELLO! Fashion

Entered by: HELLO! Limited

The Hello! team achieved impressive growth through innovation, collaboration, and their use of first party data – and also by nurturing and developing every individual. What set this team apart is their values-driven approach.

Best Creative Solutions Led / Content Marketing Campaign

WINNER: Last Player Standing

Entered by: IGN

An innovative partnership that marries brand and audience perfectly, showcasing how creativity can help drive engagement and brand uplift. The results really speak to the alignment of the message.

Best Digital Publishing Innovation

WINNER: Powering Premium Programmatic With Ozone Smart Bidstream

Entered by: Ozone

Ozone impressed the jury with their continued focus on incremental innovation and by this responsible response to increasing industry expectations that we all need to work towards a more sustainable digital publishing industry.

HIGHLY COMMENDED: Nectar360’s Digital Trading Platform

Entered by: J Sainsburys

In a world where advertisers want to target users and track purchasing, Nectar360 is an important innovation that is encouraging industry collaboration in a brand-safe and responsible way.

Best Diversification of Commercial Strategy

Sponsored by:

WINNER: Independent Licensing And Syndication

Entered by: Independent Digital News And Media

The jury was impressed with the innovative use of The Independent’s archive assets with Netflix and Ancestry.com – and they enjoyed the team’s foray into new territories and languages with their editorial coverage.

Best Media Technology Partner

WINNER: SeenThis Adaptive Streaming

Entered by: SeenThis

Given the industry’s focus on developing a more sustainable approach to digital publishing, SeenThis are thinking ahead; helping publishers, brands, and users; and creating scaleable solutions.

HIGHLY COMMENDED: Bringing UK Publishers Together To Develop Enhanced Privacy Solutions

Entered by: SOURCEPOINT

Sourcepoint are demonstrating the power of collaboration to deliver improvements across the digital publishing industry.

Best Publisher-led Social Good Initiative or Campaign

Sponsored by:

WINNER: Campaign Ad Net Zero Awards

Entered by: Haymarket Media Group

Well done Haymarket Media Group! These new awards demonstrated industry leadership on an incredibly urgent issue – built on a great partnership, the team delivered a credible response to the challenge for the advertising sector to get to net zero, and also delivered a successful and profitable event.

HIGHLY COMMENDED: Reach PLC Online Safety For Journalists Initiative

Entered by: Reach PLC

This was a niche but hugely meaningful initiative that could pave the way for changes beyond a single industry or profession. Prioritising the safety of journalists is a significant step protecting independent journalism and the jury highly commend that.

HIGHLY COMMENDED: The Telegraph NatWest 100 Female Entrepreneurs To Watch

Entered by: The Telegraph & Natwest

This was a great partnership with an amazing input on the creative side –and a lasting social impact.

Best Research / Insight Project

WINNER: ISBA / AOP / PwC Programmatic Study II

Entered by: PwC (with ISBA & AOP)

The jury were impressed by the bravery of this research project – taking on a complex topic and challenging the industry to do better.

Best Use of Audio

WINNER: Which? Money Podcast

Entered by: Which ?

Which? have successfully pivoted their approach to meet a societal need and attract a new, younger demographic – bringing real people stories to the Which? brand and achieving successful cross-promotion between their audio product and other content channels.

HIGHLY COMMENDED: Immediate Media Co

Entered by: Immediate Media Co

Immediate have demonstrated a robust and impressive audio strategy that is growing from strength-to-strength with impressible financial results.

Best Use of Data

WINNER: NationalWorld.com Democratising Ad Effectiveness Data For The SME Marketplace With Brand Metrics

Entered by: NationalWorld.com and Brand Metrics

The jury were hugely impressed by the scaleable and strong partnerships created by NationalWorld across a number of industries – this project has the potential to disrupt and make a big difference for SMEs.

HIGHLY COMMENDED: Bauer Illuminate Automotive

Entered by: Bauer Media

Bauer’s response to societal issues and the strong results in this entry impressed the jury who saw that this productised approach could inspire other publishers.

Best Use of Video

WINNER: The Telegraph - Life On The Frontline

Entered by: Telegraph Media Group

The Telegraph team have created truly engaging long-form video content, innovating in their approach to give a voice to the people on the ground in Ukraine. This important and inspiring storytelling also grew the audience and delivered commercially.

HIGHLY COMMENDED: PinkNews

Entered by: PinkNews

The PinkNews team spotted a gap in the market on Snapchat – delivering great results on a challenging channel.

The AOP Employer Excellence Award

Sponsored by:

WINNER: Immediate Media Co

The jury were impressed by Immediate’s clear recognition of the critical importance of learning, development, and mentoring – and earning 4th place in the Glassdoor Employee Choice Awards is a strong accolade suggesting they must be getting something right!

Best Online Brand: B2B

WINNER: Campaign

Entered by: Haymarket Media Group

This was a really compelling entry in the jury’s view – demonstrating innovation across live events, data-driven editorial, and product launches, plus a strong understanding of the audience, and great results.

Best Online Brand: Consumer

WINNER: BBC Good Food

Entered by: Immediate Media

BBC Good Food demonstrated a smart and considered approach, listening to audience trends to deliver content that resonates with impressive commercial results.

HIGHLY COMMENDED: PinkNews

Entered by: PinkNews

Far beyond expertly carving their niche, PinkNews is rapidly growing into a major player in digital publishing. They are driving forward with great editorial content and delivering impressive commercial growth.

Small Digital Publisher of the Year

WINNER: Assemble Media Group

This entry ticked all the boxes for the jury – Assemble Media Group has worked all its brands hard, delivered campaigning journalism putting their brands at the centre of their industry, delivered innovative initiatives and growth against all key metrics.

Best Digital B2B Publishing Company

Sponsored by:

WINNER: Incisive Media

After a year of transformation, Incisive is now an integrated, multi-platform, digital-first operation, with a re-structured business model delivering marketing services on a membership basis. Incisive has been building success through investment in people – growing digital, events, and customer success teams – and delivering 16% revenue growth.

Best Digital Consumer Publishing Company

Sponsored by:

WINNER: The Telegraph Media Group

With every entry shortlisted in this year’s AOP Awards, The Telegraph Media Group has clearly been investing and succeeding across all aspects of its business, which has been entirely reshaped in the past four years. The Telegraph has the fastest growing subscriber base than any UK publisher and has increased commercial revenues – setting a target that is £5M up year on year.