PETALING JAYA: Never mind being the best in the country – The Star’s R.AGE documentary journalism team has just been named the best youth news publisher in the world!

The World Association of News­papers and News Publishers (Wan Ifra) awarded R.AGE the World Young Reader News Publisher of the Year prize in an announcement on Monday.

Publishers from around the world – including the United States, Germa­ny, France, Belgium, the Ne­­ther­­lands, Hong Kong and South Africa – were in contention for the award.

A ceremony will be held on Dec 1 in Washington, DC, where the award will be presented to R.AGE.

“There is much to learn from Malaysia about how to approach the future (of journalism), specifically from the team at R.AGE, the youth initiative of the Star Media Group,” read the award announcement on the Wan Ifra website.

“The R.AGE team continues to get it right when it comes to innovation that keeps journalism, compelling storytelling and audience involvement at the heart of the work.”

The global announcement also hailed some of R.AGE’s best work in the past year, including the on-going Predator In My Phone undercover documentary series on child sex predators, the award-winning The Curse Of Serawan mini-documentary and the interactive World War II video project The Last Survivors.

R.AGE was established in 2005 as The Star’s college/university pull-out. It was re-launched in September 2015 as a video production unit, focusing on hard-hitting documentaries and digital news content targeted at younger audiences.

“The R.AGE team has created a successful new formula for multimedia journalism, combining hard-hitting mini-documentaries, feature stories and interactive web content to drive social change among young audiences,” said Star Media editor-in-chief Datuk Leanne Goh.

“The success of R.AGE’s overall content strategy affirms The Star’s long-standing commitment to empowering young people through journalism and embracing digital media innovations as part of our company’s DNA.”

The World Young Reader Prize is the R.AGE team’s fourth international accolade this year, following prizes at the Asian Media Awards, Kota Kinabalu International Film Festival and The Spark Awards.

“Our goal here at R.AGE is simple,” said R.AGE editor and executive producer Ian Yee. “We want to tell stories that make a difference.

“Awards like this are great simply because they let us know we’re on the right track.”

To check out R.AGE’s latest stories and videos, go to rage.com.my or follow them on Facebook.