The awards, presented Tuesday evening at a ceremony during the World Publishing Expo in Frankfurt, Germany, honours publishers that have mastered audience engagement and gained large followings on Twitter, Facebook, or on other social media platforms.

“These winners demonstrate just how quickly newspapers have mastered the art of social media, and how quickly they are adapting to the rapid changes in technology, audience preferences, and multimedia news delivery,” said Vincent Peyrègne, CEO of WAN-IFRA. “XMA shows again in 2012 that the mission for news publishers is, and has always been, about engaging audience."

The XMA 2012 winners:

Best community engagement

1. Últimas Noticias - "El diario de la gente", Venezuela

2. Presse Druck - "retter.tv", Germany

3. WVW-Westdeutsche Verlags- und Werbegesellschaft - "Lokalkompass", Germany

Best use of Facebook by a newspaper

1. Guardian News & Media - "Guardian Facebook App", UK

2. 24sata - "24sata Facebook activity", Croatia

3. Le Parisien - "Le Parisien on Facebook", France

Monetization

1. Singapore Press Holdings - "omy Blog Club", Singapore

2. Regionalmedien Austria - "Agrarmarketing Tirol – Fotogewinnspiel", Austria

3. Singapore Press Holdings - "Flying High", Singapore

Special projects

1. Verdens Gang - "The 22nd of July terror attack", Norway

2. The Times Newspapers - "The Times for the Cities Fit for Cycling campaign", UK

3. Aftonbladet - "CreateTV for Rockbjörnen", Sweden

The XMA Cross Media Awards, now in its seventh year, showcases the most creative examples in cross-media publishing.  Full details of the awards, including past winners, can be found at http://www.wan-ifra.org/microsites/xma-cross-media-awards

Click on following link to view all pictures of the XMA Awards Ceremony:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/89339007@N05/sets/72157631880363525/