Sinag in the news!

Hello everybody! We were so overwhelmed to find out that the Philippine Star Newspaper had featured Sinag in its “The Good News” section last Sunday, 11 September 2011. We didn’t even know that we were featured in the newspaper if not for a neighbor who had read the article and showed us the newspaper two days after it came out. Needless to say, we were in mad scramble to find copies of the newspaper! So glad we were in Manila yesterday and were able to buy the Sunday issue of the Phil. Star in their head office.

We found out that the news of Sinag printing winning the Natasa Prize in the World Young Reader Awards came out on the internet as well. International newspaper sites, like the Scandinavian News Magazine site Scandasia.com and Ang Kalatas.com, a Filipino community newspaper based in Sydney, Australia featured Sinag in their sites as well. The Philippine Information Agency (PIA) also featured us in their News section and the PIA news was picked up by other sites as well!

We feel so blessed that the mainstream media has recognized our winning this award. For a while, some people didn’t really seem to believe we won an international award; but when it came out in the news, I guess there is no denying the fact now.

We’ve had so many happy things happening these past few weeks but we just have one last wish though -- we really, really hope we get to receive the award ourselves in Vienna, Austria this October.

We have our fingers crossed on this. You see, we have less than a month to process the visa applications and there’s still a possibility that they may not grant our Schengen visas. We were invited by the WAN-IFRA to visit them at their headquarters in Paris, France and then after that we will go to Vienna for the awarding ceremonies at the World Newspaper Congress. Please pray for us, that Sinag will be able to go to Europe for the awarding ceremonies. In the meantime, while we wait for visa applications and their results, here are the links to the sites that have featured Sinag printing and the Natasa Prize. Kindly click on the logo below to view the articles. Thanks and enjoy reading!

Sinag bags int'l award for student training program

Small Filipino business wins international publishers' award

Norske Skog Award for Newspapers Attracting Young Readers

Small Filipino company wins international award

WOW! Last Sunday, September 11, 2011, we were featured in Philippine Star - the Good News section for winning an International award.
Here is the link http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=726018&publicationSubCategoryId=473

SINAG printing wins international award

A small Filipino printing press from Laguna won an international award given by a Europe based organization.

Sinag Publishing and Printing Services from Calamba City, Laguna won top prize in the Natasa Prize category of the World Young Reader Awards given by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) based in Paris, France.

The Natasa Prize for newspaper printing plants is an award for projects by newspaper printing plants that effectively teach the young about newspapers and journalism. Sinag printing won top prize for this award thru its social responsibility program, the Sinag Journalism Training Seminars.

The Sinag seminars are free journalism seminars for students from public and private institutions in the province of Laguna. First launched in October 2008 and re-launched last February 2011, these seminars are free events offering lectures and workshops on journalism topics like editorial and news writing.

According to the WAN-IFRA jury who judged the awards in Brazil, “this printing plant’s journalism seminar activity is clearly a fitting tribute to the person after whom this category is named as the commitment is clear to assuring that youth learn about the importance and fragility of a free press and about how to do good journalism.”

The Natasa Prize is named after Natasa Vuckovic Lesendric (1966-2011) who founded and ran a distribution system and then a printing plant for the independent press of Serbia under the regime of Slobodan Milosevic She introduced modern practice to the management in both operations while encouraging actions that supported press freedom and introducing the young to this concept.

The prizes will be awarded on 12 October in Vienna, Austria, at the 63^rd World Newspaper Congress and 18^th World Editors Forum. Sinag printing will win a 1000 Euro cash prize for this award which is sponsored by Norske Skog, the Norway-based global paper producer.

Sinag printing owners Ruel Landicho and Raia Dela Pena-Landicho said they were overwhelmed by the international recognition given to their small company, “When we started the Sinag Journalism Seminars in 2008, we never thought this would ever happen, we are shocked and amazed by this good news,” said Landicho

“We are very happy with this award, its proves that you don’t have to be a big company to do a successful social responsibility program, even small entrepreneurs like us can give back to one’s community in a big way,” said Dela Pena-Landicho.

The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) is the global organization of the world’s press, representing more than 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3,000 companies in more than 120 countries.

Please feel free to visit the WAN-IFRA's website regarding the World Young Reader Prize winners for 2011 at http://www.wan-ifra.org/articles/2011/08/17/the-2011-world-young-reader-prizes-about-the-winners