During the awards ceremony at the Edison Ballroom in New York, the winners were unveiled across 20 categories aimed at surfacing innovation and best practices in news brands, optimising the use of media features, subscriptions, product, advertising and commerce, Artificial Intelligence and newsroom innovation, says the INMA. 

Winning Best in Show, the top award of the evening, was the Association of Independent Regional Press Publishers of Ukraine's 'Rescuing Freedom: The Campaign to Save Ukrainian Regional Journalism,' a campaign to support independent media in war times, with an impact at the community level, clearly showing what most journalists and media organisations should be doing to rescuing freedom and democracy, adds the organisation. 

The INMA competition, which has been rewarding media excellence since 1937, evaluates news media companies across two segments: national brands and regional brands, says the INMA. 

The INMA says that the 2025 Global Media Awards competition attracted 839 entries from 286 market-leading news media brands in 49 countries. Participants included newspaper media, magazine media, digital media, television media and radio media.

An international jury of 60 media executives from 26 countries selected 198 finalists earlier in 2025, adds the organisation. 

According to the INMA, judges also selected the best in six world regions from the finalists:

  • Best in Africa: Business Insider Africa for 'For Leading Social-First Business Journalism in Africa'
  • Best in Asia / Pacific: The Waikato Times / Stuff for 'Democracy.AI'
  • Best in Europe: Association of Independent Regional Press Publishers of Ukraine for 'Rescuing Freedom: The Campaign to Save Ukrainian Regional Journalism'
  • Best in Latin America: La Nación for 'S.O.S. Animals of Argentina'
  • Best in North America: Atlanta Journal-Constitution for 'Reinventing a 155-year legacy: The app is at the heart of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Journey to Becoming a Modern Media Company', and 
  • Best in South Asia: Prothom Alo for 'Echoes of Defiance: Inspiring a Generation Through Truth and Resilience'. 

"The Global Media Awards showcased just how boldly news media companies are stepping beyond long-standing formulas to better connect with readers in this fast-changing, often challenging news landscape," concludes Earl J Wilkinson, Executive Director and CEO of INMA. "This year's winners are among the most creative and inspiring we've ever seen — and we couldn't be prouder of all our amazing finalists."

For more information, visit www.inma.org. 

*Image courtesy of contributor