The investment and "competitive swagger" of Jeff Bezos' Washington Post were recognised when it was named best news website In WAN-Ifra's North American Digital Media Awards.

Judges said the Post was "definitely pushing the envelope of digital storytelling", commenting that some of the examples submitted were "incredible", it speaking to the investment made in digital, "and the competitive swagger developed over the past few years".

Washington Post was also honoured for its 'Democracy Dies in Darkness' campaign, earning a special mention - behind the The New York Times' 'The Truth Is Worth It' as best digital marketing campaign for news brands. The Post also won the best data visualisation and best digital project to engage young and/or millennial audiences categories (pictured).

The awards were announced in New York at the end of the Digital Media North America conference, and are presented in regions around the world. New this year were the awards for paid content strategy, digital marketing campaign for news brands, and digital project to engage young and/or millennial audiences. An international jury evaluated more than 50 projects from pure players, traditional media outlets, and international media brands from the US and Canada.

The winners of the North American Digital Media Awards 2019 are:

1. Best Use of Online Video (including VR)
   The Future of Gaming (in collaboration with Retro Report), Quartz
   "Effective storytelling in this medium-length form video format, which comprehensively circles the topic of video games. I enjoyed watching this."
   Special mention to Explainer Videos, Le Devoir, Canada
2. Best Digital Marketing Campaign for News Brands
   The Truth Is Worth It, The New York Times
   "This is a wonderful project and extremely well executed. The video pieces are really compelling, and I think that they've identified a key issue in selling the value of journalism. This has been one of my top-rated campaigns."
   Special mention to Democracy Dies in Darkness, The Washington Post, USA
3. Best Digital News Start-Up
   Chorus, Vox Media
   "A comprehensive and well-thought out product. It also seems to be a smart offering for a cutting-edge content company to diversify revenue."
   Special mention to STAT News - Digital Startup, STAT, USA
4. Best Data Visualization
   The four days in 1968 that reshaped D.C., The Washington Post
   "A very innovative story format with excellent interactivity and information throughout. The format helped to pull the audience deeper into the subject, and the mix of visuals and data viz was very effective."
   Special mention to Self-driving cars: Who to save, who to sacrifice?, Radio-Canada, Canada
5. Best Paid Content Strategy
   From IBM to Health Tech: Our journey to creating a new cross-channel vertical, STAT
   "They were laser-focused on the numbers and drew actionable insights into them. It is to applaud how the insights helped inform the content strategy. That is often a difficult sell in an editorial organization. Their strategy evolved as the team identified a retention issue after the initial story was published. This is critical to digital strategies. One can't simply set-and-forget strategies because the variables shift, whether that be platform changes or rapid adoption of new technology or shifts in behaviors by audiences."
   Special mention to The Truth Is Worth It, The New York Times, USA
6. Best Digital Project to Engage Young and/or Millennial Audiences
   Playing Games With Politicians, The Washington Post
   "Great and well executed idea to use Twitch for news purposes, with some of the content designed specifically for Twitch users. Interesting to see how the newsroom can be extended into such a different platform, well done!"
   Special mention to Made in PGH, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, USA
7. Best News Website or Mobile Service
   washingtonpost.com, The Washington Post
   "The Washington Post is definitely pushing the envelope of digital storytelling, and some of the examples submitted are incredible. It speaks to the investment the Post has made in digital, and the competitive swagger the Post had developed over the past few years."
   Special mention to PGNewsSlide, Block Communications, Inc.
   Winners now compete in WAN-Ifra's 2020 World Digital Media Awards against projects from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.