The PANPA ‘newspaper of the year’ title should be as much about digital as print, editors have decided.

The annual awards are being revitalised following a meeting of Australian and New Zealand editors, with fewer categories and a merger of advertising and marketing awards.

Chief executive of The Newspaper Works – which owns the competition – says entries for Newspaper of the Year will have to reflect not just the print masthead but also the paper’s digital assets: “Editors felt strongly that the strength of a newspaper could no longer be judged on their print editions alone,” he says. Sites such as Stuff.co.nz and news.com.au were leaders in their respective markets and were “greater innovators for our industry”.

Circulation divisions will be retired in favour of the segmentations specified by the emma audience measurement system, and newspapers simply segmented into daily and non-daily titles. And instead of honouring a top Sunday newspaper, a Weekend Newspaper of the Year award will reflect changing reading habits.

Printing and photography awards would remain as a major part of the awards, and Hollands says there are hopes to include some new commercial awards, including the top marketing team.

Chairman of the awards taskforce, former News Corp editor Ian Moore, says editors debated strongly whether the name ‘newspaper’ still reflected the nature of the industry. “While we all know the importance of our digital future, editors still hold strongly that our strength remains in the strength of our newsrooms and the unique engagement of our newspapers.”

This year’s awards will be presented at a gala night at The Ivy in Sydney on August 21. Advertising and marketing awards will be presented on the previous evening at The Establishment in Sydney, both events book-ending the annual Future Forum conference (August 20-21).

• Mark Hollands and Ian Moore discuss the changes in a PANPA video

Taskforce editors (pictured from left) are Campbell Reid (News Corp Aust), Bob Cronin (West Australian Newspapers), Shayne Currie (New Zealand Herald), Garry Linnell (Fairfax Media), Bob Osburn (NewsLocal), Mark Dennis (Fairfax Community Newspapers), Mark Stevens (stuff.co.nz), Heath Harrison (Newcastle Herald), Simon Holt (Brisbane Times) and Ian Moore (consultant) with Mark Hollands