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Wall Street Journal takes home Best in Show in INMA Global Media Awards

By Dawn McMullan

INMA

Dallas, Texas, USA

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INMA today announced 41 first-place recipients at its 2026 Global Media Awards competition, with The Wall Street Journal taking home the global “Best in Show.”

During an emotion-filled awards ceremony at the Tipi am Kanzleramt in Berlin in front of more than 425 guests, 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, and newsroom transformation.

Click here to view photos from the Berlin Global Media Awards Dinner.

Mike Amon of The Wall Street Journal accepts the Best in Show award from emcee Terri-Karelle Reid.
Mike Amon of The Wall Street Journal accepts the Best in Show award from emcee Terri-Karelle Reid.

Winning the coveted “Best in Show,” the top award of the evening, was The Wall Street Journal’s “Surfacing the Story: How WSJ’s ORCA Unlocks the Podcast Universe,” a powerful investigative journalism tool that turns an unsearchable podcast ecosystem into structured, analysable data, enabling reporters to track narratives, sources, and influence across thousands of hours of audio with accountability built into the system.

ORCA is the winning initiative from The Wall Street Journal, created to help the newsroom use AI to search podcast audio.
ORCA is the winning initiative from The Wall Street Journal, created to help the newsroom use AI to search podcast audio.

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

This year, two companies garnered two first places: Dainik Jagran in India and News Corp Australia.

The 2026 Global Media Awards competition attracted a record 960 entries from 274 market-leading news media brands in 46 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 200 finalists in March.

Winners from the six world regions with their awards Thursday night.
Winners from the six world regions with their awards Thursday night.

Judges also selected the best in six world regions from the finalists:

  • Best in Africa: Media24 for “Saturday Night Fitness”
  • Best in Asia/Pacific: ACM/Explore for “From Destination Site to Network Product”
  • Best in Europe: Bauer Media for “Toni OS & Eva AI”
  • Best in Latin America: Clarín for “Mile 201: Patrolling the World’s Most Contested Maritime Frontier”
  • Best in North America: The Wall Street Journal for “Surfacing the Story: How WSJ’s ORCA Unlocks the Podcast Universe”
  • Best in South Asia: Dainik Jagran for “Lights. Cities. Action.”

“It is clear from this year’s winning INMA entries that AI has graduated from experiment to strategic operating fabric, and the linear subscription funnel has given way to integrated audience systems focused on lifetime value rather than acquisition alone,” said Earl J. Wilkinson, executive director and CEO of INMA.

“Just as importantly, our members are pairing this business sophistication with a renewed commitment to immersive, human-centric, and local journalism. In a year defined by misinformation and fractured public discourse, news media organisations are proving that strategic depth and editorial purpose are not competing priorities — they reinforce each other.”

Category 1: Best Brand Awareness Campaign

Regional Brands

National Brands

Category 2: Best Public Relations or Community Service Campaign

Regional Brands

National Brands

CATEGORY 3: Best Use of An Event to Build a News Brand

Regional Brands

National Brands

Category 4: Best Idea to Encourage Reader Engagement

Regional Brands

National Brands

Category 5: Best Initiative to Bolster Next-Generation Readership

Regional Brands

National Brands

Category 6: Best Use of Video

Regional Brands

National Brands

Category 7: Best Use of Audio

Regional Brands 

National Brands

Category 8: Best Use of Print

Regional Brands

National Brands

Category 9: Best Use of Social Media

Regional Brands

National Brands

Category 10: Best Newsletter

Regional Brands

National Brands

Category 11: Best New Digital Product

Regional Brands

National Brands

Category 12: Best Product Iteration

Regional Brands

National Brands

Category 13: Best Use of Generative AI

Regional Brands

National Brands

Category 14: Best Revenue Diversification Strategy

Regional Brands

National Brands

Category 15: Best Initiative to Grow Subscriptions

Regional Brands

National Brands

Category 16: Best Initiative to Engage and Retain Subscribers

Regional Brands (judges decided to award two entries as first-place winners in this category)

National Brands

Category 17: Best Idea to Grow Advertising Sales or Revenue

Regional Brands

National Brands

Category 18: Best Client Advertising Campaign

Regional Brands

National Brands

Category 19: Best Innovation in Newsroom Transformation

Regional Brands

National Brands

Category 20: Best Use of Visual Journalism and Storytelling Tools

Regional Brands

National Brands

Congratulations to all the winners! The deadline for the 2027 INMA Global Media Awards is January 29, 2027.

Photos by Robert Downs Photography.

About Dawn McMullan