Digital Media Awards 2026

Adam Tinworth is a lecturer in audience strategy at City, University of London. He also trains and consults on digital and audience strategy, and is one of the longest-standing media bloggers, having being writing at One Man & His Blog for over 20 years.

Adriana Lacy is the CEO of Field Nine Group, a media and technology company driving innovation at the intersection of consulting, analytics, and storytelling. Within Field Nine Group, she leads Influencer Journalism, a first-of-its-kind agency that helps news organizations collaborate with creators to strengthen trust and engagement. Recognised on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, Adriana has held roles in newsrooms including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and Axios, and now teaches media strategy to emerging journalistsrging journalists. Through her ventures and teaching, she champions new models that bridge traditional media with today’s digital communities.

Alberto Lucas López is a Spanish-born journalist who, since 2016, has served as Senior Artist for New Narratives at National Geographic. In this role, he specializes in the development of innovative approaches to visual storytelling and graphic journalism. His individual work has been honored with more than 200 international awards.
Prior to joining National Geographic, he was Graphics Director at Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Society for News Design and, in recent years, has devoted a significant portion of his time to doctoral research in Arts and Education. He also regularly delivers international lectures and leads workshops on visual storytelling.

Alison is a media consultant and editorial leadership coach who has worked in journalism for more than 30 years, mainly in the development and implementation of digital journalism innovation. A former editor of WalesOnline and the Daily Post, she is co-leader of the Journalism Leadership and Innovation programme at the University of Lancashire, and her board positions include the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), Women in Journalism, the Journalism Charity and the Public Interest News Foundation.

Andrew Webb is the founder of Connectopia and the Emerging Tech Network, a media innovation consultancy and community helping organisations make confident, human-centred decisions about technology and AI. With over 25 years’ experience in media and publishing, including senior roles at DMG Media. Andrew specialises in bridging strategy, creativity and technology to help teams adapt at pace. His work focuses on how people, processes and tools can align to drive lasting change across the newsroom ecosystem

Angie Drobnic Holan is a journalist, editor and writer with a background in library science. She currently serves as director of the International Fact-Checking Network, an organization that empowers fact-checkers around the world. Before that, she was editor-in-chief of PolitiFact, the U.S. politics fact-checking website, and was a reporter on the PolitiFact team that won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for its fact-checking of the 2008 presidential election.

Barry Adams is a 25-year veteran of the digital industry. As a specialised SEO consultant for news publishers, he focuses on delivering technical and editorial SEO services to news publishers around the globe. Barry counts some of the biggest media brands among his clients including The New York Times, Daily Mail, The Guardian, Condé Nast, The Globe and Mail, Mediahuis, Euronews, and The Independent. He is a regular speaker at conferences and events across the world, delivers annual guest lectures for local universities, co-founded the News and Editorial SEO Summit, and writes an irregular newsletter on SEOforGoogleNews.com.

Caroline is a multi-talented journalist and digital media strategist with over 20 years of experience in content creation for traditional and digital platforms, management of brand editorial and native advertising projects, and development of digital communication marketing strategies.

She is the immediate past Digital Editor at the Standard Group Plc where she led the newsroom digital transformation project, grew digital assets for the traditional news brands (KTN News, The Standard, Spice FM, Radio Maisha, Standard Digital Entertainment), led the audience acquisition, retentation and growth strategy, and created content monetisation opportunities online. She hosted a popular weekly podcast called Workplace Talk where she discussed practical ideas to help Gen Z navigate work life.

Chia Lun is the former responsible for Talent Sustainabilty@CW, a digital initiative focused on elevating organizational talent sustainability. Previously, Chia Lun was digital transformation director where she oversaw digital subscriptions, global partner development, and organizational development projects. She has degrees from Columbia Journalism School and Sciences Po in Paris.

Christophe advises media organisations on team acculturation and the deployment of ethical AI strategies, using a holistic approach at the crossroads of editorial, technology and people, As co-designer and lead mentor for the global Newsroom AI Catalyst programme (piloted by Fathm for WAN-IFRA, in collaboration with OpenAI), he has supported international newsrooms in experimenting with generative AI and has led the European “Advanced” cohort. His strategic vision is further informed by a Fathm collaboration with DeepMind, focusing on the structural impacts of advanced models on journalism.

Clara Soteras is a SEO for News Publishers and Digital Strategy Consultant working with media organizations and companies across Spain, Europe, Latin America, and the United States. She brings a strong product-oriented and strategic vision to media innovation, audience development, and newsroom transformation projects.

Corinne Podger provides consultancy and capability support to organisations and individuals navigating digital change. Her services include consultancy, capability analysis, training design and delivery, research, and project management. Since 2015, she has delivered more than 300 contracts in over 60 countries, helping thousands of people improve their digital workflows and strategies.

David Caswell is a consultant and researcher focused on the transformational potential of AI in journalism. He was previously the Executive Product Manager of BBC News Labs and has held senior roles leading AI publishing initiatives at Yahoo!, Tribune Publishing and The Los Angeles Times. Caswell also publishes peer-reviewed research on computational and automated forms of journalism, including as a Fellow at the Missouri School of Journalism. He is a frequent speaker and writer about the opportunities and challenges facing journalism in the emerging AI-mediated digital media ecosystem

Dr. Mario R. García is Senior Adviser on News Design and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, and the CEO and Founder of García Media, a global consulting firm specializing in newsroom transformation, design strategy, and mobile-first storytelling.

Recognized worldwide as one of the premier media designers, Dr. García has led more than 750+ redesign and innovation projects across 122 countries.

His lifetime achievements have been recognized with the Society for News Design’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the University of Missouri Medal of Honor in Journalism, and inclusion among People Magazine’s “100 Most Influential Hispanics.”

Esther is an award-winning video journalist and news strategist with over 10 years of experience across the United States, Latin America, and Europe. She is passionate about using diverse visual storytelling formats to bring complex stories to life.

She has covered a wide range of topics, including natural disasters, politics, and immigration. Her work has earned an Emmy Award, three Edward R. Murrow Awards, two Gracie Awards, and multiple honors from NPPA and POYi.

Specialist in SEO, e-commerce and digital strategies. With solid experience in leading media such as Grupo Clarín, Infobae and Grupo Telefónica. He currently leads News Tech, Marktube, from the perspective of innovation and creativity.

Based in Rotterdam, Fabienne joined OCCRP as head of journalism products in 2023. In this role, she manages the website development and audience engagement teams.

Previously, she worked as an innovation professional for several newsrooms and NGOs, such as De Volkskrant in Amsterdam, the International Press Institute in Vienna, and International Media Support in Copenhagen. Fabienne holds a master’s degree in journalism from Stanford University, where she specialized in the nexus between data journalism, design thinking, and business management. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in computational social science with a major in philosophy from the University of Amsterdam.

Federica is an Emmy and Edward R. Murrow Award-winning journalist and news editor with more than 15 years of experience across digital platforms and international wire services. As senior visual editor at Univision News Digital, she led and produced enterprise and investigative visual projects and short documentaries. She also co-led the production of breaking news and short-form vertical and horizontal video and helped oversee the team’s digital strategy.

She has a strong international reporting background, having filmed and reported across Latin America, the Caribbean and the United States for Agence France-Presse and The Associated Press, and has received specialized training in filming in hostile environments.

Gabriel Richaud has more than 30 years of experience in Marketing, Sales, Strategic Alliances, and Digital Business.

He is currently Managing Director of IAB Mexico (Interactive Advertising Bureau), an international non-profit association that brings together the leading companies in Digital Advertising and Interactive Marketing. Previously, he served as Director of New Business & Digital at Sony Music Entertainment Mexico.

Glyn Mottershead is a media consultant, trainer, and journalist with over twenty years of experience. He specializes in data journalism, newsroom workflow management in digital environments, and integrating artificial intelligence and data analytics into journalistic work. Throughout his career, he has developed and delivered training programs in these areas, aiming to bridge the gap between traditional journalism and advanced digital practices. He actively contributes to international initiatives promoting data journalism and is one of the founders of the European Conference on Data and Computational Journalism.

Gregor Waller provides consulting services to international media businesses for developing their digital strategy and transforming their business models for the digital era.

Ignacio Zaccagnino is a senior media consultant with over 20 years of experience in the media industry, working across editorial, digital and executive roles. Throughout his career, he has held leadership positions in major news organizations such as Grupo Clarín and Grupo Perfil, where he led digital teams and contributed to the evolution of newsroom strategy and audience growth. He currently works with media leadership teams across the United States, Latin America and Europe as part of Nomadic, helping publishers scale their digital businesses, improve profitability and build sustainable growth models aligned with editorial values.

Inês Bravo is the Digital Product & Experience Lead at Impresa, leading the digital transformation of its media brands – Expresso, SIC, SIC Notícias, and Opto SIC (its OTT streaming service). She champions a user-centric approach, driving innovation across Impresa’s digital platforms by leading cross-functional teams to design, develop, and deploy advanced content management systems and integrate AI tools into newsroom workflows and products.

Ismael is the is the author of the newsletter Tendenci@s, launched in 2017 and now reaching more than 9,000 subscribers, as well as co-author of the newsletters Hoy en internet and On the Net Today. He has written five books, including La Reinvención del New York Times (2017) and Clarín, actualizado (2023). He serves as Vice President of the Executive Board of SembraMedia, an international non-profit supporting digital media entrepreneurs. He was Director of National Geographic España from 2019 to 2022 and previously served as journalist in residence at the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at the University of Texas at Austin during the 2016–17 academic year.

Jacqui Merrington was recently appointed Executive Editor of The Independent. She was previously Director of AI at Mail Metro Media, leading AI strategy, adoption and culture change to build an integrated, AI-enabled future. With over 20 years’ experience as a journalist and editor, with a Masters in Journalism Innovation Leadership, she has a proven track record in delivering impactful high quality journalism, audience growth and newsroom transformation.

Jacqui Park is an experienced mission-driven founder and C-suite executive, communicator, strategic designer, researcher, educator and creative problem-solver, with a track record leading diverse international teams, with strategies to create and grow initiatives and programs that advance missions, support change, and centre and celebrate people. She has led, designed, implemented, advised on, and taught innovation, creative problem-solving, design, entrepreneurship, product development, journalism-in-transition and digital media strategies. She has extensive experience as a communications leader, both as a founder and strategist at the forefront of finding sustainable pathways to reimagine communications of value that serve communities. She has done this within her own productions, as a thought-partner to diverse organisations globally, and in designing and implementing programs to support organisations through the digital transition. She’s an experienced organiser, community builder, program curator, public interviewer and speaker at festivals, international conferences and UN forums. She has written widely on leadership, innovation, creativity and media.

James Ball is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster and author, fellow of the think-tank Demos, and the political editor of The New World.

Javier Garza Ramos is a journalist based in Torreón (northern Mexico) where he founded and heads Horizonte Lagunero, a local news platform on radio and social media. He also co-hosts El Noti, one of the most popular news podcasts in México.

For the past 20 years, he has also worked in journalist protection and press freedom issues. As editorial director of El Siglo de Torreón, he led a newsroom that came under fire from drug cartels operating in his city, and developed safety protocols that are now used by newsrooms covering violence in several countries, where he has trained dozens of journalists on safety issues.

Jeremy Maggs is a South African media specialist with over forty years’ experience in television, radio, and print. He currently presents Moneyweb@Midday, a fast-paced live online daily current affairs show (winner of the best SA podcast 2025 at the Telkom Radio Awards)  as well as Hot Business 6pm to 7pm weeknights on Hot 102.7 FM

Maggs has extensive media management experience. He was editor-in-chief of eNCA and prior to that he was editor of Radio 702’s Eyewitness News He also wrote for the authoritative Financial Mail on the advertising industry.

Known for energizing teams and delivering strategy with impact, John has deep expertise in digital media, audience insights, product development, and organizational growth. In his role as Chief Strategy and Operations Officer at Local Media Association, his focus is on strategic alignment and implementation in addition to operational excellence and program leadership.

John leads LMA’s Family and Independent Media Sustainability Lab and the AI Community Journalism Lab. He is the founder of Pinwheel Insights, which focuses on digital content innovation, business transformation, and collaborative ideation.

Jon Wile is Vice President of Design at American City Business Journals (ACBJ), where he oversees design across 40 business journals covering editorial, advertising, events, marketing, product, and UX. He leads two national design teams with more than 50 designers and has previously served as VP of Content and Creative Director, spearheading the redesign of all 40 publications and their websites. He is also President of SND- Society for News Design

Kuek Ser Kuang Keng is a digital journalist, data journalism trainer, and media consultant based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He is the founder of Data-N, a training program that helps newsrooms integrate data journalism into daily reporting.

Laura Puertas is a senior journalist with more than 40 years of experience in television, print, magazines, and radio across Peru and Panama. Since August 2012, she has served as News Director of Medcom Corporation, leading one of the country’s most influential news operations.

She has been a member of the Board of Transparency International and is a founding member of the Press and Society Institute (IPYS). She has also served on the board of the Inter American Press Association, contributing to the promotion of press freedom and journalistic excellence in the region.

Lloyd Coutts is the Managing Director of Coutts Media and Training. A media strategist and publishing specialist in South Africa’s print, broadcast and online sectors, he holds a BA Honours degree in Journalism and Media Studies from the University of the Witwatersrand.

He has spent nearly 40 years in the industry, working as a reporter, sub-editor, news editor, assistant editor and acting editor across a wide range of beats for outlets including the Eastern Province Herald, Business Day, The Star, Business Report, Classic FM, Network Radio News and the German Press Agency, mostly in Johannesburg.

Lluís Cucarella is a specialist in digital editorial strategy, audience development and subscription models. With more than 30 years of experience in the media industry, he has served as editor-in-chief of titles such as Levante-EMV and has held senior leadership roles in business and content across various newspapers and media groups, including Prensa Ibérica, where he was Deputy General Manager of the Digital Division.

Luciana started her career at IBM in Project Management for Latin America and then became CPO of Periódico Estadão in Brazil, leading the digital transformation of the company. She then joined Quartz as Senior Product Manager, achieving significant results such as increasing readership and creating a successful podcast. After her time at Bandeirantes Group in Brazil as Director of Product and Data, she currently serves as Media Business Advisor at MDIF. She is also Vice President of the Executive Board of the News Product Alliance.

Luis Miguel Pedrero is a journalist, lecturer, and researcher at Francisco de Vitoria University, where he coordinates the Media-MIND group. He has been an editor, producer, scriptwriter and consultant for various radio stations and corporations. Author of over a hundred articles and chapters on communication and audio media. Co-IP of the R&D&I projects ESCUCHAD.es and Audio Con_Sentido. He has been a jury member for the ONDAS radio and podcast awards, the Gabo Awards and the iVoox awards. He is co-editor of the weekly newsletter AudioGen.fm.

Lyndsey Jones is the director of iCalami, a digital transformation consultancy, and author of Going Digital, published by Pearson. She specialises in audience-first content strategies, change management and AI workflows and processes to diversify reach and revenue streams. A member of the expert panel of WAN-IFRA and a former executive editor at the Financial Times, she has coached more than 100 newsroom teams across 22 countries on audience growth strategies. She also holds board positions in the media and hospitality sectors.

Martha Ramos Sosa is chief editorial officer of the Organización Editorial Mexicana (OEM), the largest Mexican print media company and the largest newspaper company in Latin America. The company owns a large newswire service, it includes 45 Mexican daily newspapers and 44 websites.

Maylis is a visionary media executive with 30+ years of international leadership across media, adtech, and entertainment. Renowned for driving growth, digital innovation and strategic transformation, she led major mergers and held senior roles at Bertelsmann, Axel Springer, and Vocento across Europe, the US, and Latin America. Now advising at board level, she empowers organizations through GTM, digital growth and user-centric strategies. An active investor in Spanish startups and founder of a Nepal-based NGO, she blends entrepreneurial energy with social impact. A former champion ski racer, Maylis mentors emerging leaders and brings resilience, agility, and purpose to the future of media.

Journalist, specialized in Human Resources and Business Management, Natália Leal is the CEO at Lupa, the main Brazilian digital platform who tackles mis/disinformation using journalism and education. In 2021, Natália was chosen by the ICFJ to receive the Knight Award for Journalism for her work in combating misinformation. She also led the team that won the main digital journalism awards for the work on “No Epicentro”, a platform to raise awareness about the impact of Covid-19 in Brazil. With a career spanning over 15 years, she has already worked as editor and content director at Lupa, besides having worked as reporter, editor and chief reporter at other Brazilian vehicles.

Ola’s career at Svenska Dagbladet (a major Swedish news brand within the Schibsted Media Group) started in the newsroom. During his 20 years at the newspaper he managed many projects during the newspaper’s journey towards a digital, audience focused operation. Ola has also been involved in business development at a Schibsted group level, aiming at growing the subscription business for the Consumer Business department in the group. He now works as an independent media consultant, serving different media organisations in their path towards sustainable reader revenues.

Pablo led several digital businesses over a decade at Clarín -one of Latin America’s largest media conglomerates- before founding Diagonal Minds in 2016, a global research and advisory firm focused on identifying industry trends, MediaTech innovation, best practices, and new revenue opportunities. He has also served as a jury member for the INMA, WAN-IFRA, and Press Gazette global media awards in recent years.

Pierre is the founder of Yoof, a London-based consultancy helping media organisations engage Gen Z audiences. He also leads WAN-IFRA’s News Creator Exchange. Drawing on his own background as a content creator, he brings first-hand insight into the creator ecosystem and its growing influence on news and culture. He has led international research on how young people consume information, working with both legacy publishers and news content creators to shape audience strategies and develop innovative formats. Pierre frequently shares his expertise at industry conferences and operates at the intersection of media, culture and youth innovation.

Rafael is an information graphics and data visualization editor with over two decades of experience in local, national, and international news media. Since 1999, he has focused on interactive and multimedia visual storytelling for newsrooms such as The Sunday Times, El País, and El Mundo. His work has covered major global events, ranging from terrorist attacks and international conflicts to national and international elections and large-scale sports events, including World Cups and the Olympic Games.

Robb Montgomery is a Berlin-based American journalist, documentary filmmaker, and visual media anthropologist known for his contributions to mobile journalism and media development programs.

He is a former Chicago newspaper editor who builds immersive cultural heritage experiences that mesh investigative journalism, documentary film, spatial computing, ethnography, and shoe-leather reporting. He spent three weeks in Ukraine in 2023, leading internally displaced journalists to produce 18 short documentary films during the full-scale invasion.

Roberto Mayo is a journalist, producer, and creator specialising in news content and audiovisual storytelling, with a proven track record across Argentina, Mexico, and the United States. Trained in journalism and political science, he has built a career spanning radio, television, digital platforms, and independent media, combining rigorous reporting with innovative formats and a deep understanding of audience needs.

He currently serves as Managing Director of Telefe Noticias, Argentina’s leading television news programme, where he plays an active role in editorial strategy, the development of original storytelling formats, and the delivery of high-impact, trusted journalism.

Ross Settles, independent consultant and investor, is a longtime observer of changing media economics, especially the impact of technology on digital media business models.  

Over the past decade Settles has worked with multiple media outlets to develop sustainable business models in Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Bangladesh and Myanmar, as well as in Europe and North America.  Settles recent research has focused on understanding the broader economic environment that supports or undermines the viability of independent media.  As adjunct professor at the University of Hong Kong’s Journalism and Media Studies Centre, Settles focused on the unique technology, economic and regulatory environment facing journalists and content creators in Asia.  Settles’ teaching at the University of Hong Kong provided students with tools and techniques to adapt news values to emerging Asian distribution platforms and to develop media business skills to understand the unique impact of business models, distribution platforms on all types of public expression.  

Sannuta Raghu is an award-winning Indian journalist and product manager. She heads AI at Scroll.in. With her colleagues, she is building Factivo, a multimodal versioning platform that makes a news story structured, modular and adaptive so that users can consume the news in a form that best fits their needs.

Until recently, she was a 2025 Journalism Fellow at the Reuters Institute, University of Oxford, where she developed a metadata blueprint to codify journalism’s ‘knowledge’ layer. She was also a 2024-2025 ICFJ Knight Fellow, where she built the Directory of Liquid Content to map the structural layer of journalism, and developed formats to demonstrate what a ‘net-positive news experience’ could look like.

Serm Teck Choon is a technology entrepreneur, executive, and author with over two decades of experience in digital transformation, data, and media innovation. He is the Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Antsomi, a Southeast Asia based marketing technology company specialising in data platforms and AI-enabled customer intelligence, helping organisations adopt data driven operating models at scale.

Recognised for his industry expertise and strategic perspective, Serm is frequently invited by media and industry platforms to comment on digital transformation, data strategy, and emerging technologies.

Journalist and editor. Silvia is Head of Development at Radio Ambulante Studios, where she has worked for over a decade. She developed El hilo, a weekly podcast that contextualizes the most relevant news in Latin America, and was its executive producer and co-host for six years. She also developed, reported and produced “Bukele, el señor de Los Sueños”, the first series for Radio Ambulante Studios’ podcast Central.

Steffen Damborg (MBA) is a digital transformation specialist with more than 10  years of experience in all aspects of running an online business in the media industry. He is a former Digital Director and Chief Development Officer at the leading Danish publisher, JP/Politikens Hus, and is currently focusing on Digital Transformation for global media organisations accrued from his knowledge of working extensively in the Scandinavian market. His digital transformation experience includes different aspects of online media management, strategic development and emergent approaches towards new sustainable digital business models in the disrupted Nordic media market and beyond.

Susan Makore is a highly experienced media management professional known for her expertise in coaching, training, and governance. She currently serves as Deputy Executive Director Programme Strategy for the World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) Women in News (WIN) program. She has served as Women in News Advisory Senior Manager for Africa and has extensive experience in executive coaching.