On June 23, Editor-in-Chief of the Kursiv.media website Tatyana Trubacheva and former Editor-in-Chief of the Kursiv business weekly Tatyana Nikolaeva received the European Newspaper Award for the Cover and Cover Story Nationwide Newspaper category (Issue No. 1034, May 16, 2024) at the ceremony in Vienna, Austria.
The cover story is about an underground empire built by a kingpin from Kyrgyzstan. The illustration features a bald man wearing a suit jacket and a crown, gazing at a city with mountains in the background. This is a reference to the notorious boss of the Kyrgyz mafia Kamchybek Asanbek (Kamchy Kolbayev).
Tatyana Trubacheva revealed the story behind the article’s text and cover illustration.
«I requested a piece about Kamchy Asanbek (a so-called thief-in-law) from a colleague in Kyrgyzstan. He didn’t manage to create a coherent story, so I had to go through everything the Kyrgyz mass media had written about eliminating the kingpin and write the text on my own. I also proposed the idea for the front page illustration. The design request in Russian might have sounded a bit crude, as I said, ‘Let’s draw a d*head sitting on a mountain and gazing at the city where he was at the helm.’ Colleagues appreciated the idea, and that’s how the cover story design was born — the one that brought Kursiv an award,» Trubacheva shared.
In turn, Nikolaeva was pleased that the jury highly praised the front-page story design.
«We also saw designs by other winners — they were showcased on a large screen during their announcement. These were powerful works. European newspapers stand out with extremely interesting designs. I believe it’s an honor to be part of this group,» she said.
The European Newspaper Award was founded by the prominent newspaper designer Norbert Küpper in 1999. The world’s 26th newspaper and online media design competition received over 3,000 applications in 20 categories from 22 countries. The winners’ list was announced in February.
Nevertheless, Kursiv.media had to discontinue its print edition and go fully online. The final (1,073rd) issue of the Kursiv business weekly was published on Feb. 27.
