The World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) has announced the winners of this year’s 11th edition of the Digital Media African Awards, where South African newsrooms and journalists took first place across seven categories.
The awards celebrate initiatives that push the boundaries of storytelling, strengthen audience relationships, and define the future of media across the continent. The South African winners of the best in countering disinformation and best use of video categories have also made it onto the WAN-IFRA global awards shortlist.
The 2026 winners include:
🥇 Best News Website or App Relaunch
Project: Netwerk24 Newsroom Transformation
Company: Netwerk24, South Africa
The jury said: “It’s not an easy feat to take a publication completely digital, and this case study is a good example of how strong positioning and understanding the digital space well can help in a successful transition. Especially the strong retention numbers and low churn seem evidence of that.”
🥈 Silver — Debunk Media: Beyond the Headline – A digital news redesign (Kenya)
🏅 Bronze — Daily Sun: Daily Sun – The People’s Paper, Digitally Reimagined (South Africa)
🥇 Best in Countering Disinformation (now on global awards shortlist)
Project: X-Boer Unmasked
Company: News24, South Africa
The jury described the investigation as “a remarkable investigation. The series of stories not only unmasked the person behind the X Boer’s account but also showcased the immense hard work, perseverance, and a range of OSINT skills involved, from analyzing satellite images to digging into the land ownership details. Absolutely impressive work!”
🥈 Silver — News24: Exposed: The Fake News Factory (South Africa)
🏅 Bronze —BBC Media Action (Libya): Building Public Resilience to Information Pollution in Libya (RIPIL)
🥇 Best in Audience Engagement
Project: News24 WhatsApp Channel
Company: News24, South Africa
The jury highlighted the project as “a high-impact engagement model that blends distribution, participation, trust-building, and subscription growth. By transforming a broadcast tool into a community bridge and editorial feedback system, the initiative strengthens both civic impact and business sustainability. With deeper longitudinal retention metrics, it could reach an exceptional level, but as presented, it already stands as a leading example of platform-native audience engagement.”
🥈 Silver — Rapport/Netwerk24: Rapport/Netwerk24 se 100 beste Afrikaanse boeke (South Africa)
🏅 Bronze — Daily Sun: Political Discourse: Mkhwanazi Coverage (South Africa)
🥇 Most Innovative Digital Product
Project: Ask an Expert
Company: Daily Sun, South Africa
The jury highlighted the project as “a meaningful product that uses familiar messaging platforms to connect underserved audiences. Strong engagement and real-life outcomes suggest it expands how journalism can function as an intervention layer, rather than solely an information source. From an innovation perspective, the mechanics rely on existing platform capabilities, but its distinctiveness lies in editorial orchestration, expert access and a repeatable service design focused on high-need communities.”
🥈 Silver — Daily Sun: A Re Buwe (South Africa)
🏅 Bronze — Nigeria Health Watch: SOJO QuickInsights (Nigeria)
🥇 Best Use of Audio
Project: Vape Universe
Company: Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism, South Africa
One jury member’s feedback encapsulated the mission-driven reporting showcased here, “This is a solid project, relevant in terms of its subject matter, very well documented, with a fluid narrative that is easy to follow and has a clear pedagogical purpose.”
🥈 Silver — RM Times: West Africa’s Borderless Women: Inside the Yoruba Sisterhood Linking Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire (Nigeria)
🏅 Bronze — Izuba Radio & TV: Youth-Led Audio Storytelling Lab (Rwanda)
🥇 Best Use of Video (now on global awards shortlist)
Project: The price of silence: Exposing the IDT bribe attempt on journalist
Company: Daily Maverick, South Africa
The jury heralded the video project, with one jury member stating, “The Daily Maverick’s visual investigation methodically reveals evidence of corruption, showing the scale of its impact on workers and the misuse of public funds. The sting operation is deployed judiciously and crafted in service of the public interest, carefully balancing the legal and ethical considerations involved. The result is an impactful video illustrating how traditional investigative techniques remain a powerful tool for visual journalism.”
🥈 Silver — News24: Hunted – Tracked, traced and eliminated: How Mpho Mafole was murdered (South Africa)
🏅 Bronze — TUKO.co.ke: Lost sons of Kenya (Kenya)
🥇 Best Marketing Campaign for a News Brand
Project: Stand Up and Be Counted
Company: Food For Mzansi, South Africa
The jury delivered glowing feedback with this project, “Food for Mzansi’s listening campaign is a breakthrough in moving from vague discussions of audience “understanding and engagement” to an active and investigative curiosity about the reality of the audience’s experience. It is the ultimate in audience respect.”
🥈 Silver — Netwerk24 (Media24): Netwerk24 het GROOT NUUS (South Africa)
Winners in other categories include:
🥇 Best Emerging News Provider
Project: Willow Health Media – Emerging Health Journalism for Africa
Company: Willow Health Media, Kenya
🥈 Silver — Novus Media: Novanews.co.za (South Africa)
🏅 Bronze — Willow Health Media: Willow Health Explainers (Kenya)
🥇 Best AI-Driven News Product, Format or Strategy
Project: Framing Gaza
Daraj, Saheeh Masr, Egypt
🥈 Silver — Briefly News: EditorialEye (South Africa)
🏅 Bronze — Daily Maverick: Impact Engine: An AI-powered tool for impact tracking and planning (South Africa)
🥇 Best Data Visualisation
Project: The Vanishing Lifeline: Can Kenya’s Healthcare System Survive Without US Funding?
Company: Willow Health Media, Kenya
🥈 Silver — TheOutlier.co.za: What data can tell us about South Africa’s child literacy problem and how to solve it (South Africa)
🏅 Bronze — Willow Health Media: From Cradle to Future: Why childhood vaccination is protecting Kenya’s generations (Kenya)
We commend the news media organisations across Africa for their creativity and dedication shown in these groundbreaking projects,” said WAN-IFRA’s Nicole Frankenhauser. “Our sincere appreciation to the publishers who shared their work, as well as our distinguished jury for their invaluable time and expertise in the evaluation process.”