Innovation, AI, and audience growth lead INMA’s 2026 Global Media Awards shortlist

DALLAS (4 March 2026) - The International News Media Association today unveiled 200 finalists for its 2026 INMA Global Media Awards - a diverse shortlist drawn from a record number of entries across 46 countries that highlights innovation in journalism, audience engagement, and AI-driven products ahead of this year's INMA World Congress of News Media in Berlin.

Click here for the finalists list

At the heart of the shortlist of finalists are themes uplifting high-quality and local journalism, meeting the next generation of audiences where they are, creating smart video and audio products, diversifying strategically in traditional and non-traditional avenues, and experimenting and winning with generative AI use cases throughout the world.

INMA garnered a record 960 entries from 274 news media brands in 46 countries with finalists hailing from Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Latin America, North America, and South Asia.

News brands with the highest number of finalists are the Schibsted news media brands (12); News Corp (eight); Funke Media, Jagran Prakashan, and Mediahuis (seven each); Stampen (six); Bennett, Coleman, & Co., NZME, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and SPH Media (five each); Amedia, Hearst, Manorama, Newsday, and Stuff (four each); and Grupo RBS, The Guardian, Nine, Politiken, Prothom Alo, Ringier, Russmedia, and South China Morning Post (three each).

In its 89th year of rewarding excellence in the news media industry, the 2026 INMA Global Media Awards include 20 categories across two segments - national/international and regional/local. The categories focus on excellence in news brands, readership, media features, product, innovation, subscriptions, advertising, and newsroom.

One first place, second place, and third place will be awarded for each of the 20 categories within each segment. In some cases, judges may omit awards or advise additional awards.

First-place winners, regional winners, and the global Best In Show will be announced at an awards dinner on Thursday, May 7 at Tipi am Kanzleramt in Berlin, as the culmination of the INMA World Congress of News Media May 4-8.

"This is one of the most exciting seasons at INMA," said Earl J. Wilkinson, executive director and CEO of INMA. "Our Global Media Awards reflect the innovation, creativity, and diversity in the global news industry and lead the way for inspiration just around the corner. Whether through audience or advertising, our members are meeting the revenue challenges and opportunities of the AI moment, and we're thrilled to showcase their efforts."

Raquel Meikle, coordinator of the Global Media Awards, said this about the 2026 finalists: "This year's shortlist of finalists showcases an impressive range of outstanding entries, highlighting innovative campaigns that broadened audience reach while delivering measurable revenue growth. Underpinning this work is a clear commitment to smarter, more sustainable strategies for strengthening the long-term viability of their news organisations."

Sixty (60) media experts from 26 countries judged the entries in February, evaluating entrants on breakthrough results, unique concepts, strong creativity, innovative thinking, and winning synergies across platforms.

"[The entries] take responsibility in creating positive changes in societies around the world - while fighting at the same time against a flood of propaganda, political and emotional manipulation, war(s) on truth, tearing social fabric by abuse of technology, disruption in the sustainability of independent professional media," one juror said. "My deepest respect to all the nominated media professionals behind the submitted cases."

The 960 entries in this year's Global Media Awards competition are live on INMA.org in the association's Best Practices archive. Finalists may be viewed publicly, while all other entries are reserved exclusively for INMA members. INMA has 10,602 "best practices" from the past decade of Global Media Awards competitions, sortable to finalists and winners, category, year, and country.

About INMA

The International News Media Association (INMA) is a global community of market-leading news media companies reinventing how they engage audiences and grow revenue. The INMA community consists of 26,000+ members at 1,000+ news media companies in 94 countries. INMA is the news media industry's foremost ideas-sharing network with members connected via conferences, reports, Webinars, virtual meetings, an unparalleled archive of best practices, and strategic initiatives focused on digital subscriptions, advertising, product and tech, newsroom innovation, young audiences, and the publisher relationships with Big Tech.