BEIJING, Oct. 29 -- The first-ever World Media Summit (WMS) Global Awards for Excellence will play an important role in promoting media innovation in the context of a fast-changing international situation, journalists and media workers have said.

Simon Spungin, managing editor of Haaretz's English edition, said it is an honor for the leading Israeli daily to win an honorable mention in the awards.

"We feel it is a recognition not for this particular article or series of articles, but for the work we do reporting on Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world to the rest of the world," Spungin told Xinhua at his office in Israel's largest coastal city of Tel Aviv.

"It's wonderful to have the hard work we've invested over the past 15 years, since the English edition existed, recognized," he said.

On Monday, the WMS Global Awards for Excellence 2014 announced winners and honorable mentions in Beijing. The daily Live Blog on the 2012 Israel-Gaza Conflict, published by Haaretz's English website, won the Honorable Mention for the Awards for Media Innovation for its live coverage of a major breaking news event with multiple media formats.

Over 450 news organizations and more than 500 news practitioners from 138 countries and regions submitted a total of 1,424 entries for the competition, the first of its kind launched by the WMS, a platform created in 2009 in Beijing to enhance cooperation among media setups during the digital age.

The nominating panels have recommended 36 finalists to the board of judges, including Haaretz's Live Blog.

"When there is so much happening at one given time, the most effective way to report this is a live blog," Spungin said, adding that compared with print media, the live blog service can help readers get the latest news immediately.

"With a live blog, tweets and facebook posts, as well as iPhone alerts, we're able to report immediately on what's happening," he said of the impact of new media on the traditional way of news reporting.

Spungin predicted two trends for news reporting in the future -- mobile consumption news on smartphones and tablets, and "glance journalism" where people want to get the news but might not have time to read full articles, so they just glance the screen to see the headlines.

He said the honorable mention by the WMS will encourage Haaretz to continue to invest in its digital platforms, especially smartphones, and stay at the forefront of media innovation.

"The fact that Haaretz and the other organizations have been recognized for the innovations they have created is very encouraging," he said. "We know that readers appreciate it, and it's fantastic that our colleagues and people that we respect and admire also appreciate the work we did."

Spungin also spoke highly of the creation of the awards by the WMS, describing it as "a welcome development".

"I think that just as the Academy Awards recognizes the new media form of the moving picture, this award could become the standard for new media recognition while recognizing the importance of journalism as part of new media," he said.

"I would imagine that it would become as important for new media as the Pulitzer is for the traditional media. No doubt that the industry needs people and organizations to recognize innovations and to recognize good work," he added.

The WMS awards also attracted great attention of Iraqi journalists, who are looking forward to being part of a new world media order in the spirit of innovation.

"The World Media Summit is an incredibly inspiring event for us, because the media industry around the world has made a great deal of changes," said Najib al-Jubouri, a teacher at the media college at Baghdad University.

"It is really a great chance for journalists and media institutions in my country to know better about what different journalists around the world are performing," he said.

Al-Jubouri added that such awards will push media workers in developing countries to promote their professional skills.

"The WMS awards have provided a new way of thinking for the world, including my country, as we as individuals and organizations must seek how to be part of such media system, which is built on promoting our skills and the spirit of innovation," he said.

Ali Mousa, a journalist of the independent al-Mada Press news website, also sees the WMS as an opportunity for media workers around the globe to exchange and share their experience.

"The rewards will certainly encourage changes and reforms in journalism and communication by giving opportunities to the journalists to take advantage of new technology that would help them improve the quality and quantity of their reporting," he said.