Kompas won gold in the Newspaper Front Page Design category for its 1 Sept. 2021 edition, a special commemorative edition marking six months after President Joko Widodo announced the country’s first Covid-19 cases.
By
A Tomy Trinugroho
·3 minutes read
JAKARTA, KOMPAS – The Kompas daily won gold at the 2021 Asian Media Awards held by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) on Thursday (22/7/2021). Kompas won gold in the Newspaper Front Page Design category for its 2 Sept. 2021 edition, a special commemorative edition marking six months after President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo announced the country’s first Covid-19 cases.
Kompas also won two bronze awards in the Covid-19 Related Photos category and the Newspaper Marketing category for “Kompas 55 Masks", which appeared in a special edition to celebrate the daily’s 55th anniversary.
The front page of Kompas’ 2 Sept. 2020 edition displayed icons representing the number of people who had tested positive for Covid-19, as well as those who had died and had recovered from the disease. The front-page headline of the 2 Sept. 2020 edition was "Prepare for the Worst, Hope for the Best". This special edition was prepared by the Kompas editorial staff to commemorate the sixth month of the Covid-19 outbreak in the country.
In addition to the icons representing people, the front page of the Kompas special edition on 2 Sept. 2020 also displayed a graph showing the rising number of confirmed Covid-19 cases. In summary, WAN-IFRA assessed that Kompas’ front page displayed a simple infographic in the form of icons to show the number of Covid-19 victims. Not only statistics, but the front page also displayed the number of victims and indicated that there would be more victims if the public did not take real action in protecting themselves and their environment from Covid-19.
Kompas Visual Desk manager Pandu Lazuardy said that, with the thousands of people confirmed to have Covid-19, an idea emerged to describe the number of those who had tested positive, died, and recovered in an infographic.
It was simple, but required precision, patience, and accuracy. "The visualization shows that Covid-19 cannot be underestimated," he said.
In the same category, the silver award was given to Khaleej Times of the United Arab Emirates, while the bronze was won by Arab News of Saudi Arabia. Like Kompas, Khaleej Times and Arab News raised themes related to the pandemic.
The visualization shows that Covid-19 cannot be underestimated
Deceased wife
In the photo by a Kompas journalist who was awarded bronze in the Photo Related to Covid-19 category, health workers in personal protective equipment are seen squatting near a patient\'s bed. The photo was taken at a hospital by Nikson Sinaga, a Kompas journalist based in Medan, North Sumatra, while he was accompanying his wife, who died. "At that time, I accompanied my wife who was undergoing Covid-19 screening before being admitted to the hospital," he said.
The bronze award for the Newspaper Marketing category was granted to Kompas for the front page design of the 28 June 2020 edition. In this Kompas anniversary edition, the front page featured musician Tara Adia wearing a mask.
At that time, I accompanied my wife who was undergoing Covid-19 screening before being admitted to the hospital.
At that time, the pandemic had only been occurring for a few months. The new habit of wearing masks needed to be adopted. Kompas published the photograph in its anniversary edition to encourage more people to wear masks. Readers could also post selfies taken with the front page of the Kompas anniversary edition on social media.
Kompas Editor-in-Chief Sutta Dharmasaputra was grateful for all the awards, and encouraged Kompas to continue to present its best work to the public.