Pichai Chuensuksawadi, editor-in-chief, The Bangkok Post; Benoite Lopes, art editor, Apex Press and Publishing; and Elaine Wong, IFRA Asia representative

This is a story that began more than six years back when Apex Press and Publishing chairman and publisher, Saleh Zakwani, first conceptualised the idea of TheWeek - a free weekly newspaper that was easy to read and had the right mix of national and community news, entertainment, sports and all the events in town. Saleh’s idea was quickly taken up by the rest of his team who set about bringing the idea to fruition.

Today, more than five years after the launch on March 12, 2003, the belief  in the publication and an uncompromising stand on quality stands vindicated on the international stage with TheWeek winning the Judges’ Special Recognition Award for the Best Newspaper Front Page Design (circulation below 100,000 copies category) at the Asia Media Awards 2008 held last Wednesday.

Apex art editor, Benoite Lopes, and TheWeek deputy editor, Benoy George Thomas, accepted the trophy on behalf of  Apex at a glittering event at the MGM Grand in Macau, China. The prestigious Asia Media Awards is organised by IFRA Asia alongside its annual Publish Asia conference to promote the highest standards of quality and creativity in the publishing industry.

Hundreds of newspapers and magazines from Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East region have taken part in the Asia Media Awards competition over the past seven editions of this annual contest. This year, a record number of more than 520 entries were received by IFRA from across the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East regions for 27 different categories.

The awards ceremony was held on the sidelines of the Publish Asia 2008 conference, the biggest international conference and exhibition for publishers and print industry movers in the Asia-Pacific region. Entries were judged not only on design, ‘but also on how design was used to project the contents’. This included ‘the use of typography, photography, information graphics and colour.’

During the course of the awards-presentation ceremony, Reiner Mittelbach, CEO, IFRA, explained that the ever growing number of participants and keenly contested categories were a clear indication that newspapers in the Asia-Pacific region were aiming at ever higher standards of print quality and journalism.

He added that the outstanding quality of entries at this year’s competition was a good indicator of the healthy growth of the news publishing industry. Closer home, Apex senior management pointed out that the publishing house has been at the forefront of change and has taken several initiatives in the past to bring about transparency and improved competitiveness to the publishing industry in the sultanate.

Its publications, TheWeek and Al Isbou’a, are the only publications in Oman to be audited by an international media auditing body (BPA Worldwide).

“This award is presented by IFRA only to entries whose overall design, originality and content are of the highest levels of excellence. This is a justification of our stand that there should be absolutely no compromise on quality and that we should constantly strive to raise the benchmark. "

"TheWeek is a quality product that is brought out by a very creative team. I am very happy that the panel of judges and IFRA have recognised our efforts by honouring us with this special recognition award,” said Saleh. Back home in Muscat, it was indeed celebration time at Apex Press and Publishing, but top management promised one thing - that this would just be the first step in the long journey that the Apex team has charted out for its different publications including TheWeek.

“TheWeek was the product of intense brainstorming, strategic planning and teamwork. It changed the concept of weekend reading forever when it was launched and quickly went on to become the best known publication from Oman. The path ahead is full of challenges, more so because we are pioneers in starting a publication of this nature. But our readers should know that we will by no means rest on our laurels and will aim to take our publications to the highest international standards in the coming years,” said Mohana Prabhakar, CEO and managing editor, Apex Press and Publishing. 

 What is IFRA?
IFRA is a worldwide research and service organisation for the news publishing industry. Headquartered in Darmstadt, Germany, it has served as a platform for decision-makers from the newspaper industry since 1961. IFRA has more than 3,100 members from nearly 80 countries across the globe. 

PRIZE WINNING ISSUE