This year’s Digiday Publishing Awards finalists reflect a changing industry

Each year, Digiday Publishing Awards finalists are named after hours of deliberation by a jury panel made up of industry leaders. This year executives from Meredith, Reddit, The Infatuation, Gannett, Highsnobiety and more were part of the judging panel. 

When asked about where the industry is headed, jury member and managing editor at Bustle Amanda Chan, said “Discoverability is a big topic of conversation — it always has been — but even more so now.”

Michael Walker, global executive editor at Bloomberg and member of this year’s jury panel, said, “I’m really excited about the potential of live events and using those as an engine of content. Nowadays, the value of having people in the same place at the same time is more powerful than it ever was.”

This year’s winners will be announced on September 12 at the Digiday Publishing Awards gala, which will be held at Tribeca Rooftop in New York.

You can see the full list of finalists below.

Best Brand Partnership
National Baseball Hall of Fame and TeamWorks Media – “La Vida Baseball”
Liquid-Plumr and Reach Agency, AKQA, OMD – “Will It Clog?”
Overheard and Uber – “@OverheardUber”
Uber and Girlboss – “Uber Pitch”
WP BrandStudio and Optum – “Working to End the Epidemic”
Polo Red by Ralph Lauren and Spotify – Global Fragrance Partnership

Best Brand Safety Strategy
CNN Worldwide – CNN Sentiment Analysis Moderator 
BuzzFeed
USA Today – Project Armor
Dotdash
IPONWEB & WordAds

Best Branded Content Program – B2B
OppenheimerFunds and Quartz – The New Global Economy
Atlantic Re:think and Hewlett Packard Enterprise – A Moral Code – The Ethics of AI
The Trust by The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s Group and Invesco – Factor Effect
Lycored – Letter of Love Tour
Courageous Studios and GE – “Power”
Bloomberg Media & 3M – Leap Ahead

Best Branded Content Program – B2C
RT – “#Romanovs100″
Blossom and Dunkin’
24sata – “Gone, but not forgotten”
Vox Media – Ford’s “Home of the Future”
Courageous Studios and Coors Light – “Made From Mountains”
The Hook, JBL and Blue 449 – “Currys PC World”

Best Content Studio
Hearst Digital Media – HearstMade
Bonnier News Brand Studio
The Foundry @ Meredith Corp
Vox Media – Vox Creative
Discovery Digital Studios
Courageous Studios

Best Custom Advertising
WarnerMedia and Google Play – Conan 24 Hour Mobile Marathon
WarnerMedia and FDA – “Amateur Surgeon”
NBA, Spark Foundry and Arkadium – 2018-19 NBA Tip Off
Bleacher Report and McDonalds – Game of Zones
24sata – Let’s talk about sex
Bloomberg Media

Best Live Event
The New York Times – Get With The Times
PopSugar  and Reed Exhibitions – PopSugar Play/Ground
Culture Trip and Fake Love – Soho in Soco at SXSW
Bleacher Report – B/R x NC – NBA All-Star Game 2019
New York Media and The Cut – “How I Get It Done”
The Infatuation – EEEEEATSCON

Best Millennial Publisher
Newsy
Jellysmack
First Media
Bleacher Report
Bustle Digital Group
Insider Inc.

Best Mobile Innovation
MTV International – 2018 MTV EMA AR Experience
USA Today
NBC News and Code and Theory – NBC News Mobile App
Ogury and Zedge
Marfeel and Den of Geek

Best Overall Design
The Washington Post – The Lily
Ynet, Powered By – This Way Out
NBC News and Code and Theory – NBC News Digital Redesign
Insider Inc.
Bloomberg Media – TicToc

Best Paid Subscription/Membership Product
Consumer Reports – Consumer Report
Bodybuilding.com – All-Access
Piano
National Review, Inc. – NRPLUS

Best Use of Audience Data
Group Nine Media – GIA
Assembly Technologies Inc. – Statera
Bonnier Publications
Al Jazeera English – AJLabs
Mediahuis and Cxense
Jellysmack and Boys Do It Too

Best Use of Snapchat
Jukin Media
Group Nine Media – The Dodo
Group Nine Media – NowThis
Food Network
Indigo Development and Entertainment Arts Studio – Kappa Crypto
Jellysmack

Best Use of Technology
MTV International – 2018 MTV EMA AR Experience
Vox Media – Chorus
CNBC – The Warren Buffett Archive
American Hometown Media – Recipe Box Plugin
Anghami, Nescafe, Zeith and DMS – Egyptian students’ coffee
Prisma and Sourcepoint

Best Use of Voice
Food Network – Amazon Alexa Skill
CNBC – Alexa Skill
Image Media and Kildare Village – Smart Casual
Slate Studios, American Airlines, British Airways, Visit Britain and Wavemaker – I Travel For:

Best User Experience
Dotdash
The Foundry @ Meredith and Cinnamon Toast Crunch – “Fuel Your Family Roadtrip Fun”
Bleacher Report – B/R App
CNBC – iOS App
American Hometown Media – Recipe Box Plugin

Best Video Series
Discovery Digital Studios – “Dan Can Bake It”
First Data – “First Data Download”
Bleacher Report – “Game of Zones”
Courageous Studios and Coors Light – “Made From Mountains”
The Washington Post – “Should I Freeze My Eggs?”
Ellen Digital Network -” The Build Up”

Most Influential Publishing Community
The Tylt
Bleacher Report – House of Highlights
Bodybuilding.com
24sata – Voice of the People
Ellen Digital Network

Most Modern Legacy Brand
ABC – Localish
Merriam-Webster – Making Words Matter (Again)
USA Today
National Geographic
Image Media
Bloomberg Media

Publishing Executive of the Year
Heather Dietrick, CEO, The Daily Beast
Maribel Perez Wadsworth, president, USA Today Network and publisher, USA Today
Bryan Goldberg, CEO, Bustle Digital Group
Brian Sugar, CEO and co-founder, PopSugar
Neil Vogel, CEO, Dotdash
Josh Jaffe, gm, Horoscope.com Inc.

Best Revenue Diversification Model – Editor’s Choice
New York Media
Time Out
The Daily Beast
Gizmodo
Tastemade
Barstool Sports