Indian student newspaper wins World Young Readers' Prize

The Telegraph in Schools (TTIS), the weekly newspaper of The Telegraph (the number one English daily of eastern India) has been awarded the World Young Reader Prize for 2004 by the World Association of Newspapers.

The Telegraph in Schools, launched on July 19, 2003, is a weekly stand-alone product hitting the stands every Monday. Its a 16 page all colour newspaper meant for 10-18 year olds. The TTIS reaches 17,000 copies to 278 schools every Friday preceding the issue day and 7,000 homes by post or trade/stand sales.

The Young Reader Prize is awarded by the Paris based, WAN (World Association of Newspapers) that represents 18,000 publications worldwide and rewards new and unique initiatives annually for attracting young readers to newspapers. TTIS faced stiff competition and was declared a joint winner with an Australian publication, West Australian.

Dr Aralynn Abare McMane, director of WAN's educational programmes, in her congratulatory mail to Rupamala Singh, Business Manager, TTIS said "the weekly faced tough competition from around the world, but the project clearly emerged at the top because of its quality, breadth and benefits to all involved."

Dr Rudrangshu Mukherjee, editor, TTIS and Editor Editorial Pages, The Telegraph, conveyed, "It's a triumph for the students who make the paper. TTIS is not only a paper for the students; it is a paper by the students, of the students". Almost all the articles and contributions in the TTIS are from students. There are 600 tiger reporters and cub reporters that are the driving force behind this product.

Sandip Ghose, vice-president, The Telegraph and Business World, commenting on the WAN award said, "Unlike some of the other newspapers, we don't see TTIS merely from a commercial objective of boosting circulation of the main paper. We see it as more like a movement. That is why we have launched TTIS as a separate publication and incorporated student related activities."

The jury evaluating the WAN Young Readers Prize this year said, "The Telegraph has produced The Telegraph in Schools. A separate weekly publication that does far more than give young people a chance to write about news interest to them. For example, the paper organises an array of activities and clubs for the young and helped send a group of young people to Pakistan as 'goodwill ambassadors', who then reported about the moving experience in the paper."

The World Young Reader Prize is awarded annually to a newspaper which has devised the most innovative educational project or activity to develop young readership in the past year. The judges, members of the WAN Young Readers Committee, took into account the contribution of the programme to the newspaper, education, literacy and citizenship, and favoured projects that could be transferred fairly easily to other countries.