The Standard won best local newspaper in Asia, best rep-orting, best business reporting and best opinion writing, among others. Reporter Rose Tang was also named best local journalist for work covering a range of issues in China. The Standard's main competitor, the South China Morning Post, won seven awards, including best feature writing, news photography, newspaper design and editorial cartooning.
The Standard publisher and editor-in-chief Mark Clifford said the newspaper's better than expected result signified a coming-of-age for the publication. "We have added a lot of high quality people, and that investment has clearly paid off," he said. "In terms of our brand, it gives an extraordinary boost to our credibility in terms of selling both advertisers and potential subscribers on the benefits of what I think is a great newspaper."
Clifford said the swag of awards reflected growing circulation numbers since the start of the year. "We're already up nearly 20 per cent in the first four months of this year, and we expect to continue to see strong double digit circulation figures," he said.
SCMP editor Fanny Fung said the newspaper's seven awards, combined with superior circulation figures, show the publication is still the dominant player in the market. "On these occasions, we are judged by a panel of judges, but every day we are judged by over 100,000 readers and they demand excellence from our paper," she said.
Fung said the healthy competition would benefit both publications and consumers, and added the result would not affect SCMP's plans for the future.