AOP Announces Winners of the Digital Publishing Awards 2026

AOP Announces Winners of the Digital Publishing Awards 2026

Published: 12 Jun 2026

London, UK, 12th June 2026 – The Association of Online Publishers (AOP) celebrated its 24th Awards yesterday, honouring the digital publishing industry’s top talent at the in-person ceremony, held at Old Billingsgate in London.

AOP’s flagship event was hosted by comedian Aurie Styla and recognised the individuals, teams and companies driving the growth and innovation of the digital publishing sector. With categories judged by a panel of digital industry experts, under the guidance of co-chairs Jacqui Merrington, Executive Editor at The Independent and Chris Cannon, Managing Director at TechFinitive, there were 26 category winners across Individual, Team, Publishing and Grand Prix categories, and 16 highly commended entries.

Notably, William Reed won Best Digital Publishing Company, in acknowledgement of the business’ outstanding work reviewing and evolving its operations, achieving both incredible business outcomes and impressive staff engagement, despite working within a highly challenging B2B landscape.

“The 2026 AOP Awards highlighted the resilience of our industry and our ability to harness the challenges we face to spark extraordinary innovation,” comments Richard Reeves, Managing Director at AOP. “The variety of winners and highly commended entries is something to be proud of, and I’m thrilled we continue to be able to celebrate the people, teams and businesses powering our industry.”

Among the other winners on the night was Katie Jones of Farmers Guardian, who took home the prestigious Editor of the Year accolade, Gordon Rayner of The Telegraph, who won Journalist of the Year, and William Reed’s Bethany Walker, who won the Rising Star award. Immediate also celebrated multiple wins in the AOP Employer Excellence, AOP Publishing Innovation Award: Audiences and Best Research / Insight Project categories.

The full list of winners is as follows:

INDIVIDUAL EXCELLENCE AWARDS

Editor of the Year

• Winner: Katie Jones, Farmers Guardian, entered by Agriconnect (Arc Europe)
• Highly commended: Chris Lancaster, entered by The Telegraph

Journalist of the Year

• Winner: Gordon Rayner, entered by The Telegraph
• Highly commended: Hayley Dixon, entered by The Telegraph

Rising Star

• Winner: Bethany Walker, entered by William Reed
• Highly commended: Armando Abdyli, entered by The Telegraph
• Highly commended: Mariam Shubitidze, entered by The Telegraph

Sales Person of the Year

• Winner: Amber Neary, entered by Times Media
• Highly commended: Dan Maton, entered by The Telegraph

The AOP Award for Inspiring Local Journalism, sponsored by Google News Initiative

• Winner: Ezekiel Bertrand, entered by Newsquest
• Highly commended: Kumail Jaffer, entered by Reach PLC

TEAM EXCELLENCE AWARDS

Advertising Operations Team of the Year, Sponsored by Index Exchange

• Winner: The Telegraph
• Highly commended: GB News

Audience Development Team of the Year, sponsored by UKOM

• Winner: The Telegraph

Commercial Team of The Year, sponsored by Utiq

• Winner: Automotive Studio: From Creative Solutions To Creative Agency, entered by Haymarket Media Group
• Highly commended: The Telegraph

Editorial Team of the Year: B2B

• Winner: RAIL, entered by Bauer Media
• Highly commended: ENDS Report, entered by Haymarket Media Group

Editorial Team of the Year: Consumer

• Winner: Manchester Evening News
• Highly commended: GB News

Product Development Team of the Year, sponsored by Mantis

• Winner: Revenue Operations Team, entered by Financial Times
• Highly commended: Product & Digital Team, entered by Real Deals Media

PUBLISHING EXCELLENCE AWARDS

Best Creative Solutions Led / Content Marketing Campaign

• Winner: Telegraph Puzzles Joined Netflix’s Thursday Murder Club, entered by The Telegraph | iProspect | Netflix
• Highly commended: Dezeen x ASUS: Design You Can Feel, entered by Dezeen

Best Media Technology Partner: Audiences

• Winner: How Utiq Solved The Programmatic Guaranteed Frequency Problem For Publishers, entered by Utiq

Best Media Technology Partner: Revenues

• Winner: Authoring The Future: Scaling Curation And Revenue Through Google Ad Manager, entered by Google

Best Publisher-led Social Good Initiative or Campaign

• Winner: The Sun & Tesco: Cooking For All, entered by The Sun

Best Research / Insight Project

• Winner: Understanding Why Audiences Choose What To Watch: Turning Audience Motivation Into Advertiser Strategy, entered by Immediate

Best Use of Audio

• Winner: Ukraine: The Latest, entered by The Telegraph
• Highly commended: The Next Five Podcast, entered by Financial Times

Best Video Strategy

• Winner: New Scientist

The AOP Employer Excellence Award, sponsored by Lewis Silkin

• Winner: IM, entered by Immediate

The AOP Publishing Business Effectiveness Award

• Winner: From Silos To System: How Collaboration And AI Delivered Significant Growth, entered by William Reed

The AOP Publishing Innovation Award: Audiences

• Winner: Good Health By Good Food, entered by Immediate
• Highly commended: Mantis Scribe, entered by Reach PLC
• Highly commended: Times Holidays, entered by Times Media

The AOP Publishing Innovation Award: Revenues, sponsored by Google

• Winner: In Journey Video Ads, entered by Citymapper

GRAND PRIX AWARDS

Best Online Brand: B2B

• Winner: Campaign, entered by Haymarket Media Group

Best Online Brand: Consumer

• Winner: Rock Sound, entered by whynow
• Highly commended: The Sun

Small Digital Publisher of the Year, sponsored by Deloitte

• Winner: SoPublishing

Best Digital Publishing Company 2026

• Winner: William Reed

Additional details on the AOP Digital Publishing Awards 2026 can be found here.

About the Association of Online Publishers

The Association of Online Publishers (AOP) is an industry body representing digital publishing companies that create original, branded, quality content. AOP champions the interests of media owners from diverse backgrounds including newspaper and magazine publishing, TV and radio broadcasting, and pure online media. For more information, please visit https://www.ukaop.org.