The Tamil Murasu app won silver in the Best New Digital Product category at the prestigious 2025 International News Media Association (INMA) Global Media Awards, held on May 22 in New York City.
The award celebrates the app’s innovative features, including bilingual usability, youth-focused content, interactive communication tools and support for videos and webinars.
The awards saw 839 entries from 49 countries across 20 categories.
Developed and launched by SPH Media in under a year, the app has already been downloaded nearly 27,000 times, with users spanning Singapore, India, Malaysia and the United States.
It was officially launched on Oct 29, 2023, after nine months of research and development, and saw 6,000 downloads within the first four months alone.
“Our work does not just lie in building/launching products, but the constant effort taken to reiterate, adjust and enhance the products we have based on market needs,” said Mr Venga Subramaniam, Audience and Growth editor of Tamil Murasu.
Looking ahead, the team is exploring new features, including a new speech-to-text function that utilises a human-like automated voice reader and an expansion of its well-received Word Quiz for Tamil learners.
Other SPH Media publications also earned accolades.
The Straits Times took first place for Best New Audio/Voice Product and second for Best Use of Print, Berita Harian placed third for Best Innovation in Newsroom Transformation and The Business Times’ newsletter Thrive earned an Honourable Mention for youth engagement.
Tamil Murasu’s recognition underscores the growing importance of digital tools in preserving language and connecting Tamil communities across borders.
