What's your favourite Shorthand story of 2018?
Let us know, by voting for yours in this year's Shorthand Awards!
It's that time of year again...
That's right, it's time to celebrate all of your hard work this year with our third annual Shorthand Awards.
We want to look back on all of the amazing stories told in 2018 using the Shorthand storytelling tool. Whether you're a brand new storyteller, or a Scrollmation superstar, we want you to tell us what stories you're most proud of.
In fact, you don't even need to be a Shorthander to nominate. Perhaps it's one of your colleagues who deserves a hearty pat on the back, or maybe you've come across this post after reading an amazing story told with Shorthand by one of our customers and simply want to show them some love.
Either way, we want to hear from you!
This year, we've got five categories. Here are each of them with some info on what we're looking for:
- BEST USE OF INTERACTIVITY
Creative use of Shorthand's features to add movement, colour and reader participation all while enhancing the narrative. - MOST VISUALLY COMPELLING STORY
This one will have its readers hooked with its considered use of imagery, videos and/or design. - THE COURAGEOUS NEWCOMER
A fresh user to Shorthand jumping in feet first to raise awareness about a difficult issue or breaking the mould in storytelling with their use of features. - COMMUNICATION WITH A DIFFERENCE
Geared towards celebrating brands, marketers or non-profits using Shorthand to breathe new life into their information. - MOST CONSISTENT PERFORMER AWARD
Judged internally at Shorthand, we'll be taking into account metrics, such as audience engagement and time on page, use of features and overall editorial flow across stories.
We changed our subscription plans this year, meaning that the breadth of storytellers using Shorthand is even greater than ever before. Some truly amazing Shorthand stories have been released into the wild — from the world's biggest publishers, to the smaller not-for-profits. It's certainly going to be a tricky task to decide the winners, so we've enlisted the help of a panel of judges, including:
- LJ Filotrani, director of international for arts and creative industries, and course director for BA (Hons) Journalism, London South Bank University
- Scott Manson, director of content and experience planning at Oglivy UK
- Charley Sutton, deputy head of editorial at Barcroft Media
- Anthony Longden, specialist partner at Alder, and consultant in crises management and communication
There are some great prizes to give away to winners as well, such as custom branded themes, development time, subscription discounts, trophies and bottles of bubbly.
Cast your votes now...
Vote now!
Nominations for the Shorthand Awards closed on 31st December 2018
Meanwhile, as the votes pour in, let's reminisce on last year's winners...
BEST USE OF INTERACTIVITY
The judges commended the way this story created a "synergy between the storyline and the visual and interactive elements" making it an engaging read from start to finish.
MOST VISUALLY COMPELLING STORY
There is bad clothing, Redd Barna
This story by Redd Barna, Save the Children Norway, blew the judges away with its combination of interactive features and imagery.
THE COURAGEOUS NEWCOMER
London-based DATA4CHAN.GE supports civil society and human rights organisations to visualise data. They submitted I am Binadam, a story written in English and Swahili, which is part of a guerilla-style, anonymous campaign in support of the LGBTQ community in Tanzania. The judges loved it, as did we!
COMMUNICATION WITH A DIFFERENCE
Balancing the books, by Euromoney, Deloitte and Airfinance Journal
This story was praised for the way it used interactive features and data visualisation to make a report, which could have all too easily followed a PDF-format. Instead, this is digital storytelling at its best — proving it pays off to go against the grain.
MOST CONSISTENT PERFORMER AWARD
Stuff is New Zealand's largest domestic website attracting a monthly audience of 2.2 million people. Last year, they put a particular emphasis on producing quality, engaging stories. Shorthand was a key tool in achieving that goal.
Over the course of 2017, they published 25 stories — ranging from an investigation into the scourge of synthetic cannabis, a three-piece examination of the impact of climate change in three different parts of the world, a beautiful interactive telling the story of a refugee family settling in a new land, a two-part feature about Silicon Valley idealists creating controversy in rural New Zealand, and so many more.
Stuff's stories are a wonderful example of what can be achieved when expert storytellers use Shorthand to fire their creativity and commitment.
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