Beyond recognition, the 30 Under 30 Awards recipients will receive access to INMA master classes and INMA membership benefits.

All 133 applicants have been provided access to an INMA Young Professionals Initiative Slack channel for ideas-sharing and networking.

Members of the association's Young Professionals Committee reviewed applications and voted on six award recipients in five categories. These include:
  • Advertising
  • Audience
  • Content
  • Leadership, and
  • Product.
Criteria for selection included:
  • being under 30 years of age
  • early-career achievements
  • insights into innovation
  • ability to influence, and
  • likely management skills.
Winners in each of the five categories, coming from 20 countries, comprise:

Advertising
  • Shirine Bauer, digital business developer at Aftonbladet, Sweden
  • Katie Fabry, marketing director at Wall Street Journal, United States
  • Afrian Muflihul Imron, programmatic sales and operations manager at KG Media, Indonesia
  • Nastasia Pawlak, manager business development at Axel Springer, Germany
  • Damini Pustake, senior officer at Times of India, India, and
  • Mark Rossman, major accounts manager at LNP Media Group, United States.
Audience
  • Cédric Algoed, data performance manager at DPG Media, Belgium
  • Brianne Kennedy, associate director of member engagement at Wall Street Journal, United States
  • Nidhi Mahajan, associate editor of audience engagement at The Quint, India
  • Giuliana Pasquali, social media analyst at Clarín, Argentina
  • Mitchell Powell, head of social / newsroom at NZME, New Zealand, and
  • Katharina Puntigam, digital subscription manager at Kleine Zeitung, Austria. 
Content
  • Julia Beil, senior editor and co-leader in the department for career, science and life news at Insider, Germany
  • Rafeed Elahi Chowdhury, lead for content and product growth at The Business Standard, Bangladesh
  • Denis Domínguez, editor at El Heraldo, Honduras
  • Lee Hee Ai, team lead (young audience) at Singapore Press Holdings, Singapore
  • Claudia Mann, editor in chief at Futter Magazine / Kleine Zeitung, Austria, and
  • Lilys Njeru, correspondent at Nation Media Group, Kenya. 
Leadership
  • Kayla Alexander, head of audience development at Media24 / network24.com, South Africa
  • Peder Engesæth, director / consumer and lifestyle at Aller Media, Norway
  • Betina Hughes Sheen, senior producer at The Canberra Times (Australia Community Media), Australia
  • Katherine Landeck, co-director of planning at Gannett New England, United States
  • Agnes Stenbom, responsible AI specialist at Schibsted, Sweden, and
  • Daniela Werbeniec, senior project manager and communications lead at Agora, Poland. 
Product
  • Cloudy Carnegie, senior data scientist at Financial Times, United Kingdom
  • Cassidy Grom, news app developer at The Star-Ledger (Advance Local), United States
  • Hiroya Kato, web developer and voice actor at Nikkei, Japan
  • Hemant Sahni, lead analyst / data and analytics at HT Media, India
  • Sarah Weishäupl, head of product management at Die Presse, Austria, and
  • Bettina Widmer, head of vertical hub and new audiences at Blick Group (Ringier), Switzerland. 
"It's the second year we are awarding and lifting up 30 global talents in the media industry under 30 years; I am both impressed and personally inspired by this year's group of aspiring stars," says Mari-Marthe Aamold, chair of the committee that is overseeing the INMA Young Professionals Initiative, as well as general manager and CFO of Bergens Tidende and Stavanger Aftenblad in Norway.

"We are so proud of the 2021 class of INMA 30 Under 30 Awards, which reflects broad geographical, gender and racial diversity," says Earl J. Wilkinson, executive director and CEO of INMA.

"You can see with the 30 award winners the diverse incubation grounds for future media leaders. INMA looks forward to a fuller embrace of this year’s class over the next year," concludes Wilkinson.

For more information, visit www.inma.org. You can also follow INMA on Facebook, Twitter or on Instagram.