Straits Times website, audience strategy among 10 efforts honoured at global Eppy Awards
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The Straits Times has clinched 10 awards, including first place for best overall website design, best redesign and best audience engagement strategy, at the 27th edition of the Eppy Awards.
PHOTO: ST FILE
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- Straits Times won 10 Eppy awards, including best overall website design, best audience engagement strategy and best photojournalism on a website.
- "Listen First" initiative helped ST understand under-35s' concerns, producing content with 5.5m views.
- ST secured awards with "Sounds of Singapore, rhythm of home," "Vaping: The Invisible Crisis" and "Unpacked".
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SINGAPORE – The Straits Times has clinched 10 awards, including first place for best overall website design, best redesign and best audience engagement strategy, at the 27th edition of the Eppy Awards on Nov 11.
ST was also recognised in other areas, such as community service reporting with its “Vaping: The Invisible Crisis” campaign, and for its photojournalism through a feature that paid homage to the red hue of the Singapore flag via infrared photography.
The annual awards, organised by American trade news publication E&P Magazine, spotlight the best in digital journalism and innovation.
ST’s new website was launched in July by the tech and product team at ST, featuring a cleaner reading experience and tools powered by artificial intelligence (AI) to help readers find and read news faster.
With readers’ needs at the heart of the design, the website aimed to prioritise legibility and fast access to context.
Also in line with the redesign of ST’s digital experience for its 180th anniversary
It changed how the newsroom delivered journalism by improving reader experience and driving greater engagement, which won ST first place for best redesign and best website navigation.
From late 2024 to May 2025, ST’s Audience Lab focused on engaging Singaporeans under 35 with the publication’s political reporting for the 2025 General Election through an audience listening initiative titled Listen First
It involved reaching out to readers through a dedicated Telegram group, audience interviews and an in-person focus group, as well as new storytelling formats such as short-form videos on TikTok and Instagram.
With the data, the team was able to understand the issues readers cared about and how they preferred to consume news, going on to produce content that garnered 5.5 million views on TikTok and Instagram.
To the tune of engaging readers, ST also won the award for best innovation project on a website for its multimedia article “ Sounds of Singapore, rhythm of home”
Presented as an interactive quiz, the project paired everyday sounds with short poems and collage-style animations,
In the spirit of National Day, photojournalist Ong Wee Jin and his team reimagined familiar landscapes in Singapore as surreal, red-hued scenes
For offering audiences a fresh way of seeing the everyday and connecting them to their shared identity, this project won ST first place for best photojournalism on a website.
ST also came in second for best community service reporting for its anti-vaping campaign “Vaping: The Invisible Crisis”,
The team behind this produced features on what motivated young people to vape, the pervasiveness of vaping in schools, and the harmful effects vaping has on the body.
A week after its launch on July 13, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung announced that etomidate would be classified as a drug
Separately, the Unpacked newsletter
Written in a short, sharp and conversational style, the newsletter includes summaries of events and writers’ takes on what the news means for readers.
Post-election, the newsletter has expanded its scope to include deep dives into hot topics. It won second place in the best news or political column category.
Coming in second in the category of best use of data and infographics, ST’s interactive piece “How food diary videos on social media can impact your body image”
This project dug into the viral TikTok trend of #WhatIEatInADay, which in content creators document their daily meals in minute-long clips, and investigated the impact these videos could have on vulnerable audiences.
It sparked discussion among educators, health professionals and parents here, against a backdrop of debates in Singapore and Australia on regulating social media for teens.
ST also came in second in the best mobile news app category for its new, intuitive app design that features an AI-powered tool that summarises the day’s biggest headlines for readers who want to “snack” on news, and a top stories carousel for readers to discover other stories.
ST editor Jaime Ho said: “These awards always mean so much, in reaffirming the role we play and the excellence to which we strive. The recognition across so many categories is heartening, and this year, I take particular pride in the recognition given to our work in the community service and audience engagement categories.
“It is incredibly meaningful for us to not just achieve excellence, but to work together with our community, and through that, have an impact on those who read, watch and listen to us.”
Other SPH Media publications also won awards, with Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao placing first in the best news or event feature video for its video “GE2025: How Singapore’s Political Battlegrounds are Changing”.
