CNA wins gold for Best Use of Video and silver for Best Podcast at Digital Media Awards Asia 2025

KUALA LUMPUR: CNA bagged two awards, a gold for Best Use of Video and silver for Best Podcast, at the World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) Digital Media Awards Asia 2025.

The awards were presented on Wednesday (Apr 23) at a ceremony at the Digital Media Asia (DMA) conference in Kuala Lumpur. 

For its Build Your Own News Influencer project, CNA won the gold award for Best Use of Video.

With the rise of self-styled news influencers as a competitor to news publishers and broadcasters, CNA endeavoured to create its own news influencer to grow its audiences. 

As part of the project, former TV anchor Chan Eu Imm, who is a veteran journalist with 18 years’ experience, reinvented herself as an influencer and creator.

Under the CNA Explains banner, she unpacked topics such as the GISB saga in Malaysia, the rise of Mpox, and the arrest of a Singaporean for a US$230 million crypto scam. The more platform-native style of presentation resulted in a nearly 300 per cent rise in views for CNA’s explainer videos on YouTube. Watch time for each explainer video on CNA’s YouTube channel doubled as well.

Said Chung Lyn-Yi, Deputy Chief Editor and head of the CNA Digital Growth team: “News consumption patterns have been evolving for some time now, but we have been innovating tirelessly to make sure our content is accessible and engaging to audiences, old and new. Our team of data-savvy content creators is constantly studying what we can do better.”

“I think we’ve proven that traditional media can challenge news influencers. It just takes a bit of daring and effort when it comes to experimentation,” she added.

CNA also clinched a silver award for Best Podcast for its two-part audio series for the Asian Tsunami Anniversary Special, which tied with Mediacorp’s 8World News’ Why So Serious podcast series.

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the disaster, the CNA current affairs documentary team returned to ground zero to speak with survivors whose lives are forever changed.

Through these interviews, the CNA Podcast team identified two key themes: A grief that never goes away and how disasters can make way for real and enduring change in societies. 

With a combination of original sound, carefully curated sound design, evocative narration and an added insight from the documentary journalists themselves, this podcast special offers the listeners an intimate account of the pain and power of nature.

Mediacorp’s Brand Studio also took home a silver award for Break the Silver Ceiling - a showcase of how seniors in Singapore are redefining ageing -  in the Best Native Advertising / Sponsored Content Campaign category.