Star Malaysia's R.AGE team - a "bunch of young journalists" producing in-depth stories and videos (pictured) - have been honoured again with WAN-Ifra's World Young Reader competition.

And this time, it's the top prize.

A winner for 'enduring excellence' in 2014, and again in this year's Asian Media Awards for best feature story, the youth initiative of The Star has taken the top award in WAN-Ifra's World Young Reader Prize for innovative use of video, compelling journalistic storytelling and "audience involvement in ways that can inform news publishers around the world".

The award is part of WAN-Ifra's efforts to recognize, encourage and disseminate promising new ideas, thinking and actions to help build stronger and vital news media:

"This year's winners show, once again, that engaging with the young people is a smart strategy for news publishers worldwide who want to grow while they also help create a civic-minded, media-savvy new generation," says chief executivce Vincent Peyrègne.

R.AGE is named news publisher of the year for an initiative that began with a social media video explaining the serious side of cheerleading and turned into a full video reporting initiative which included an undercover documentary about child sex predators on mobile chat apps and an investigation of a mysterious illness attacking the children of an indigenous tribe, resulting in government action.

The South China Morning News Young Post team in Hong Kong also scored two special mentions in the competition. One in the editorial category was for a "throwback" 'Second World War edition' which included reviews of the films and music than may have been current on VJ Day, as well as news stories including a first-person account of life as a resistance fighter during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong. "A very cool and easily replicable way to revive history for young people," judges said. The second special mention was for Young Post's Exam Tip Project, study tips which led to 3000 views in two hours for the maths tips, 17000 for English, and a "huge spike" in web traffic and social media engagement.

Another public service special mention went to India's Dainik Bhaskar for its One tree, one life (Ek ped ek zindagi) project which promoted awareness about the value and environmental importance of planting and nurturing trees. The initiative involved a million schoolchildren and resulted in 2.5 million personalised saplings being planted across 14 cities.

Other top prizes went to European publishers - Schleswig-Holsteinischer Zeitung, Germany (public service); Polska Press Group, Poland (News in Education); Het Belang van Limburg, Belgium (editorial); Lausitzer Rundschau, Germany (brand); and Uitgeverij Young & Connected, The Netherlands (digital first).