I'm going to start posting a selection of pages from the winners of the World's Best-Designed Newspapers category of the recently judged Society for News Design's 26th Creative Competition. These pages aren't necessarily what was entered in the contest. The Die Zeit and Marca pages are from one of the weeks papers had to choose entries from, and the Courant pages are culled from designer's portfolios at News Page Designer, so some of those pages might have been entered. The Der Tagesspiegel and Svenska Dagbladet pages are from the last few weeks. Still, it should give a sense of the winners.

There were 423 newspapers entered in the category, with five receiving the unanimous vote of the judges. They are Die Zeit, Hamburg, Germany; Svenska Dagbladet, Stockholm, Sweden; Der Tagesspiegel, Berlin, Germany; Hartford Courant, Hartford, Conn.; and Marca, Madrid, Spain.

The SND press release on the awards says:

While these papers represent an array of format, scope and structure, they succeed because of their clarity of purpose and their commitment to engage their audience.

The winners excel in design — maintaining the highest standards of typography, page design, photography, illustration and color use. While each newspaper has a unique voice, all of them demonstrate passion, intelligence, imagination and rigor.

The judges were: Eduardo Danilo Ruiz, president of Danilo Black, SA de CV in Monterrey, Mexico; John M. Humenik, editor of the Quad-City Times in Davenport, Iowa; Leland F. "Buck" Ryan, associate professor at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Ky.; Sharon Roberts, assistant managing editor, Austin American-Statesman, Texas; and Bonnie Scranton, senior art director of Newsweek magazine in New York, N.Y.

(Also check out SportsDesigner.com, where Rich Boudet has a Q&A with a judge from one of the other categories.)

First up is Die Zeit, a 450,000 circulation weekly in Hamburg. It was also named one of the World's Best-Designed in 1998, 1999, 2001 and 2002. This time the judges said:

A weekly newspaper with refined design and strong typography. Die Zeit invites readers to slow down and explore the many facets of life. Bookish in its design, this paper reflects the country’s history in fine typography and printing through the elegant, yet practical use of art and text. Designers at Die Zeit succeed in the creative use of a strong grid structure, but also know how to break it to seduce the reader.

More pages after the jump.