African Digital Media Award Winners 2026: 11th Edition
WAN-IFRA is proud to congratulate the esteemed winners of this year’s 11th edition of the Digital Media Africa Awards. We commend the news media organisations across Africa for their creativity and dedication shown in these groundbreaking projects. 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. This competition would not be possible without your collective efforts.
All Gold winners of the Digital Media Africa Awards will advance to WAN-IFRA’s World Digital Media Awards; finalists for the global competition will be announced later today. Stay tuned!
Again, congratulations to all the finalists and thank you for sharing your inspirational projects with us.
These are the 2026 winners:
WINNERS
Best News Website or App Relaunch
Project: Netwerk24 Newsroom Transformation
Company: Netwerk24, South Africa
Netwerk24, the flagship Afrikaans platform of Media24, completed a major transformation in 2025, shifting from a hybrid print-digital model to a fully digital-first, mobile-first newsroom. The transition followed the closure of several legacy print and PDF editions and included the relaunch of the iconic Sunday title Rapport as a digital-only brand, while maintaining curated access to legacy titles such as Beeld and Volksblad. Supported by a new CMS and redesigned workflows, the project marked a complete shift in content creation, optimisation and editorial processes.
The transformation delivered strong results, with subscriber retention remaining high at around 2.5% monthly churn and the paying subscriber base growing to over 96,000. Netwerk24 now generates an average of 2.9 million daily pageviews, becoming South Africa’s second-largest website despite operating behind a hard paywall and in Afrikaans. Rapport achieved a 94% reader retention rate and an 8.6% increase in Sunday pageviews during its transition, with performance regularly exceeding that of News24.
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.”
Best in Countering Disinformation
Project: X-Boer Unmasked
Company: News24, South Africa
This exposé highlights the role of journalism in providing accountability, uncovering hidden truths and addressing the impact of disinformation.
News24 revealed that Sebastiaan Jooste, a former farmer, was behind the inflammatory X account @Twatterbaas, which propagated divisive rhetoric and misleading narratives such as the so-called “white genocide” in South Africa. The investigation showed how this content influenced high-profile figures, including Elon Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump, shaping international perceptions and contributing to real-world outcomes such as executive orders, U.S. sanctions on South Africa and immigration policies favouring Afrikaners.
This investigation sits at the intersection of journalism, politics, technology, and social justice, demonstrating the media’s critical responsibility to challenge disinformation in a networked world where falsehoods can shape global policy.
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!”
Best Emerging News Provider
Project: Willow Health Media – Emerging Health Journalism for Africa
Company: Willow Health Media, Kenya
Willow Health Media was founded on the belief that health journalism is a public service. Operating in an environment where health misinformation spreads rapidly and trust in public systems is fragile, Willow Health Media produces original reporting that explains complex health issues in clear, grounded language. The newsroom focuses on maternal and child health, public health systems, universal health coverage, medicines safety, non-communicable diseases, and emerging health threats.
The project’s goal is to strengthen public understanding of health, inform policy conversations, and amplify underreported voices, including patients, frontline health workers, and marginalised communities through a solutions journalism approach. The project combines traditional reporting with digital-native storytelling, using explainers, structured data callouts, and platform-adapted summaries to meet audiences where they are. The jury confidently awarded Willow Health Media the winning project, as one juror highlighted, “Willow fills a genuinely critical gap of dedicated, credible health journalism in a region where health misinformation causes real harm. For a newsroom barely a year old operating with limited resources in Kenya, the traction is strong.”
Best AI-Driven News Product, Format or Strategy
Project: Framing Gaza
Daraj, Saheeh Masr, Egypt
This project was developed to address a key newsroom gap: the lack of reliable and scalable tools to compare how Gaza coverage is framed across different outlets. In a fast-paced news cycle, manual analysis and inconsistent labelling made it difficult for reporters and editors to assess what was emphasised, what was minimised, and how sourcing shaped interpretation. Data was fragmented, multilingual and difficult to query, limiting the ability to test claims of bias and slowing editorial decision-making.
To address this, the project introduced a journalism-first, human-in-the-loop workflow using AI for pattern detection at scale. The system transforms unstructured coverage into structured, comparable signals, including frames, salience and bias-adjacent indicators, enabling reporters to interrogate narratives more efficiently and base their work on evidence rather than anecdote. Designed to be transparent and auditable, the workflow operates without reliance on black-box systems and supports editorial judgement throughout the process.
The jury said: ”Framing Gaza stands as an exceptional and courageous contribution to AI in journalism, applying computational methods to one of the most contested and consequential news stories of our era. Its rigorous methodological transparency, its unflinching ethical framework, and its capacity to surface systemic editorial bias at scale represent a genuinely visionary use of AI in service of press accountability. This project sets a powerful precedent for how AI can function as a truth-seeking instrument, auditing media narratives rather than merely producing them.”
Best in Audience Engagement
Project: News24 WhatsApp Channel
Company: News24, South Africa
News24 South Africa used WhatsApp Channels to expand audience engagement and strengthen its connection with readers seeking reliable information since 2023. Over time, the channel grew to over one million followers, becoming a key platform for distributing credible, shareable content, including breaking news, fact-checks and human-interest stories. It also supported the collection of user-generated content, such as photos and videos, and the flagging of reader-reported misinformation, contributing directly to its reporting and investigations.
Recognising the popularity of WhatsApp and the spread of disinformation on the platform, the newsroom prioritised reaching audiences where they were. Although designed as a one-way broadcasting tool, the channel enabled platform-native interaction through voice notes, polls and content sharing, including contributions to the podcast The Lead. With an average engagement rate of 75% and more than 1,300 new subscribers acquired over the past year, it strengthened digital reach and created a direct line of communication with its audience.
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.”
Most Innovative Digital Product
Project: Ask an Expert
Company: Daily Sun, South Africa
Ask an Expert is a digital product developed by Daily Sun to connect underserved communities in South Africa with professional advice that is often inaccessible. Using a dual-channel WhatsApp model, the initiative gathers questions from readers and turns them into structured responses from experts, translating complex legal, administrative and financial issues into clear, practical guidance.
The project has shown strong engagement and tangible results, reaching tens of thousands of users and helping address everyday challenges through accessible information. By turning audience needs into actionable content, it reinforces trust and positions journalism as a direct service to communities.
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.”
Best Use of Audio
Project: Vape Universe
Company: Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism, South Africa
With vapes being punted as an alternative to smoking, Bhekisisa’s three-part podcast looks at how the new trend shapes South Africans’ nicotine habits and how hard it is to give up, despite claims that e-cigarettes can help you ditch conventional smokes. Vape Universe was designed to reach Bhekisisa’s core audience of policymakers, academics, activists, and health journalists, while also being accessible to the general public concerned about nicotine use and public health. They structured the series for digital audio platforms, ensuring it could be consumed on multiple devices—smartphones, tablets, or desktops—and crafted each episode to be engaging even for listeners unfamiliar with vaping debates.
The series balances human experience with expert insight, covering the history of vaping, regulatory gaps, youth uptake, and the influence of the tobacco industry. Structured episodically, each instalment weaves narrative arcs with evidence-based commentary, building a story-driven investigation that tries to engage listeners while critically examining a complex health issue. 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.”
Best Use of Video
Project: The price of silence: Exposing the IDT bribe attempt on journalist
Company: Daily Maverick, South Africa
The journalistic goal of this video series was clear: to expose an attempted bribery of a journalist by senior figures within a state-funded institution, reveal the broader context of alleged corruption at the Independent Development Trust, and demonstrate, transparently, how investigative reporting protects the public interest.
From the outset, their editorial intent was to let viewers see the truth unfold. Rather than simply report that a bribe was offered, they showed it, using verified footage from a carefully planned sting operation led by investigative journalist Pieter-Louis Myburgh. This approach not only strengthened the evidentiary value of the reporting, but also exposed the modus operandi of local corruption and underscored the stakes of holding power to account in South Africa.
Ultimately, the storytelling aimed not just to inform, but to make corruption visible, human, and undeniable… so that viewers could understand what is at stake when public money and public trust are exploited. The result was a series that sparked national debate, prompted institutional scrutiny, and reaffirmed the role of journalism in democracy. 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.“
Best Data Visualisation
Project: The Vanishing Lifeline: Can Kenya’s Healthcare System Survive Without US Funding?
Company: Willow Health Media, Kenya
The project was inspired by the impact of foreign funding withdrawal for health programs and how Kenya can wean itself of donor dependency with alternative, sustainable models in health financing. The editorial purpose was public-spirited. The biggest challenge was sifting through fifty years of data, figures and statistics to tie funding to impact and health emergencies in areas most affected by donor withdrawal and solutions to the challenge.
The intention was to use complex data running into decades to weave a visually appealing health narrative. The idea was to show the interconnectedness of donor dependency in crucial health areas and attendant dangers when geopolitics and regime changes, as happened with President Donald Trump in the USA, leave a health system in limbo and what Kenya could do to achieve sustainable health financing.
Even as government and donor decisions continue to unfold, early signals show the story is being used for policy briefings, academic analysis, media commentary, and stakeholder discussions. Willow Health Media is actively tracking citations, institutional usage, expert feedback, and cross-border readership to map its longer-term influence on public understanding and policymaking around health financing. As the project continues to yield impact, one jury member synopsized the project as “A well-structured narrative combined with an appropriate selection of statistical chart types for the content and variables. Good narrative flow.”
Best Marketing Campaign for a News Brand
Project: Stand Up and Be Counted
Company: Food For Mzansi, South Africa
Stand Up and Be Counted began with a quiet but disruptive idea. What if a news brand stopped talking about itself and instead asked the people it serves to speak? What if marketing was not about noise, but about listening?
Stand Up and Be Counted became a national invitation to everyone who feeds the country. From backyard growers and communal farmers to emerging and established commercial producers, farmworkers, agripreneurs, and first-time entrants.
More than 700 respondents from every province participated. The data revealed a hidden middle of emerging commercial farmers largely absent from official statistics. It challenged outdated turnover classifications. Labour insights suggested this group may already employ more people than the formal industrial agricultural sector.
Just as important were the softer signals. Farmers completed a long, demanding survey because they trusted the intent behind it. They shared their realities because they believed their stories would not be misused. Internally, the findings reshaped editorial priorities, podcast strategy, audience definition, and commercial positioning. Externally, the white paper is informing conversations among policymakers, investors, and industry leaders. 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.”
