Overview of this campaign

Across Bangladesh, younger audiences, especially Gen Z and late Millennials, are growing up in an environment dominated by short-form video, algorithmic feeds, and fragmented information consumption. Traditional newspaper reading is often perceived as:

 

• Intimidating

• Irrelevant to daily student life

• Detached from platforms where young people spend time
  
  

For The Daily Star, this posed a long-term strategic risk:

• Declining habitual newspaper readership among youth

• Weak emotional connection with print journalism

• Lack of structured entry points for first-time young readers
  
  

The challenge was not just reaching, but habit formation, how to make newspapers feel accessible, rewarding, and socially aspirational for young people across urban and district-level Bangladesh.

So, our goal was simple- "Reaching a generation growing up without Newspapers, with our Newspaper, but without boring them."

The underlined objectives were -

1. Reaching the Next-Gen Readers 
   
   To introduce structured newspaper reading to Gen Z and young Millennials by engaging students from schools and universities across multiple districts in Bangladesh through a competitive, youth-first platform.
   
   
2. Increasing the Engagement Depth
   
   To drive repeated and meaningful engagement with newspaper content that ensures sustained interaction over several weeks per season.
   
   
3. Innovative Repositioning of the Product Among Youth
   
   To reposition newspaper reading as aspirational and participatory by transforming it into a skill-based competition supported by peer interaction, recognition, and national-level celebration.
   
   
4. Improving Media Literacy
   
   To improve media literacy and critical thinking skills among participating youth by enabling them to navigate news, headlines, opinion, and context through guided assessments and journalist-led workshops.
   
   
5. Building a Future-proof Association with the Youth
   
   To build a long-term next-generation readership pipeline for The Daily Star by running the Newspaper Olympiad as a repeatable annual platform, strengthening early-stage readership habits over successive seasons.

Results for this campaign

In its 4th consecutive season in 2025, The Daily Star National Newspaper Olympiad (NNO) has evolved into one of Bangladesh’s most sustained and scalable youth readership initiatives. Over four seasons, the programme expanded consistently in geographic reach, participation, and cultural relevance, demonstrating that newspaper engagement among young audiences can be built through depth, structure, and repetition, not one-off exposure.

Across its most recent season, Newspaper Olympiad directly engaged 24,516+ students from 1,274 educational institutions, spanning 37 districts, representing 57% of Bangladesh’s total districts. This nationwide footprint ensured the initiative reached young readers far beyond metro centres, embedding newspaper reading habits within district and semi-urban student communities. In total, the initiative reached 1.2 million people through on-ground activations, events, and media amplification.

The Olympiad’s multi-stage engagement model proved critical to impact. Participants spent weeks, not minutes, interacting with newspapers, progressing from district-level selection rounds to divisional workshops and a national grand finale. This structure created repeated exposure to newspaper content, enabling participants to independently navigate news sections, understand headlines and opinion, and discuss current affairs in peer groups. Reading shifted from a passive activity to an active, confidence-building skill.

Crucially, Newspaper Olympiad delivered depth alongside scale. Rather than relying solely on digital impressions, it prioritised sustained interaction through physical participation, workshops led by journalists and educators, and celebratory national recognition. As a result, newspaper reading was reframed, from “something adults do” to “something I’m good at.”

For The Daily Star, the impact was strategic and long-term. Newspaper Olympiad positioned the organisation as a mentor and guardian of media literacy, reinforcing why i one of the top publishers in Bangladesh. It strengthened brand trust among young audiences, reinforced institutional relevance, and built a future readership pipeline rooted in habit, pride, and ethical awareness. Beyond readership, the initiative contributed to improved media literacy, reduced reliance on social media sensationalism, and inspired personal growth among participants.

Contact

To contact a company representative about this campaign, click here for the INMA Member Directory