AJ+ honored with five awards during the month of November

AJ+ has been honored with five awards during the month of November. AJ+ English won three Excellence in Journalism Awards, conferred by the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), Northern California Chapter, in the categories of Commentary/Analysis, Features and Longform Storytelling, and Longform Storytelling; while the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), awarded AJ+ Español with two LATAM Digital Awards in the categories of Best Innovation to Engage Young Audiences and Best Use of Online Video.

“The journalistic work carried out by AJ+ continues to be recognized by the industry. Within the same week we got awarded in different categories, for very different products ranging from hard-core field journalism to satire to collaborative news verification. The versatility, innovation and quality of the content created by AJ+ in its different languages keeps setting path and showcasing the power of mixing talent with ethics. It is amazing to see this success track and the impact of the collaborative work between team members in Qatar, Mexico and the United States”, mentioned Dima Khatib, Managing Director of AJ+ channels.

The Excellence in Journalism Awards were awarded to AJ+ English during the SPJ NorCal 33rd Excellence in Journalism Awards Dinner, celebrated on November 14, in San Francisco. The first of AJ+ channels, founded in 2014, was honored in the categories of Commentary/Analysis for the Newsbroke series; Features and Longform Storytelling for Direct From with Dena Takruri’s “Why Oakland Wants Ex-Convicts To Grow Weed”; and Longform Storytelling for Untold America’s “Chinese Food: An All-American Cuisine.”

With nearly 10,000 members, the SPJ is the most broad-based journalism organization in the United States. It is dedicated to encouraging the free practice of journalism and stimulating high standards of ethical behavior.

AJ+ Español, for its part, was awarded with two LATAM Digital Media Awards in the categories of Best Innovation to Engage Young Audiences, for Verificado 2018, and Best Use of Online Video (including Virtual Reality). The awards were presented in Bogotá, Colombia, on 15 November. Launched by AJ+ Español, Verificado 2018 was a collaborative verification initiative tailored for the Mexican elections, in which 90 different media and other organizations took part. The content produced by the initiative was published online where it attracted voters between 18 to 34 years of age, including more than 14 million potential first-timers. The initiative got a lot of attention in local media and among politicians while achieving a very high level of engagement among a young audience that typically finds political campaigns dull. The content was fresh and dynamic and debunked disinformation with direct collaboration from the audience, including an innovative approach using WhatsApp.

The 2018 LATAM Digital Awards received 115 entries from 64 companies and 15 countries in what was one of the most competitive and international editions since the start of the competition in 2015.

AJ+ is currently formed by four channels: AJ+ English, AJ+ Arabi, AJ+ Español and AJ+ français. The channels post their content on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, targeting the generations that typically don’t consume news anywhere else. By presenting stories from a different angle than that of mainstream media, AJ+ has amassed millions of followers across social media, in its four languages. AJ+ English has been ranked among the top 10 most viewed news and politics channels on Facebook in the United States market while AJ+ français is now the second most viewed news and politics channel in the French market.  Both AJ+ Arabi and AJ+ Español have been leaders in their own markets, having the highest engagement rates among their competitors and offering ground-breaking innovative formats copied by competitors.