MACAU, China -- (UPDATE) INQUIRER.net on Wednesday won the Judges? Special Recognition award in the online media category at the 7th Annual Asia Media Awards 2008 held here.

Its parent company, the Philippine Daily Inquirer, bagged a silver in the Best in Newspaper Infographics ? breaking news category.

Both awards were for media groups with circulation of more than 100,000.

The awards were presented by IFRA, a worldwide research and service organization for the news publishing industry, during its annual meeting here.

?This year, a record number of more than 520 entries for all categories were received from the Asia Pacific region and the Middle East, a sign that newspapers are aiming at increasingly higher standards of print quality and journalism,? said IFRA Asia in a statement.

?The overall outstanding level of quality of these entries demonstrates that the Asian publishing industry is indeed in a very healthy state,? it said.

The Stomp Team of Singapore won the gold in the Best in Online Media category while Australia?s smh.com.au bagged the silver and bronze went to Taiwan?s 1-apple.com.tw. Another Judges' Special Recognition Award went to the South China Morning Post's scmp.com.

?This award recognizes publishers who have adopted digital media as part of their total product offer to meet the major changes in how people consume news and information,? IFRA said.

In the Best in Infographics ? breaking news category, the South China Morning Post won the gold and Taiwan?s Apple Daily bagged the bronze.