PRESS RELEASE – ICQC

12 AUGUST 2026

WAN-IFRA celebrates the new club members of the International Color Quality Club 2026-2028

Since 1994, WAN-IFRA has held a biennial print-quality competition for newspapers and magazines worldwide to showcase excellence in colour printing. The 27th International Color Quality Club (ICQC) 2026–2028 was held in May 2026 by the World Printers Forum (WPF), WAN-IFRA’s print community. It recognises companies that meet international printing standards and consistently produce high-quality newspapers.

The evaluation includes objective measurements from the WAN-IFRA “Cuboid,” printed for one full week in May 2026, where technical capabilities like dot gain, grey balance, color space, etc are assessed and also a panel of industry and technical experts checks visible print consistency and overall appearance via assessing the defects on printed newspapers submitted (General Print Quality). These review gives participants useful feedback and provides industry benchmark for improving print processes.

“Qualifying Color Quality Club shows strong process control and gives advertisers confidence in consistent quality,” said Sarah Lesting, Director, World Printers Forum. Prabhu Natrajan, ICQC project manager, said more publications are meeting tougher standards, though ISO newsprint quality remains the main challenge and participation has dipped slightly.

International Color Quality Club 2026-2028 members:

WAN-IFRA appreciates and congratulates successful publications on their efforts behind producing constant quality reproduction. This edition brings up 17 titles (below) achieved the feat of new membership

NO COMPANY PUBLICATION CITY COUNTRY
1 ABP Pvt. Ltd. Anandabazar Patrika Kolkata India
2 ABP Pvt. Ltd. The Telegraph Kolkata India
3 Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. The Times of India Ahmedabad India
4 Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. The Times of India Bengaluru India
5 Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. The Times of India Lucknow India
6 Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. The Times of India Mumbai India
7 Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. The Times of India Sahibabad India
8 Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. The Times of India Gurugram India
9 DELO d.o.o. Delo Ljubljana Slovenia
10 Druck Styria GmbH & Co KG Kleine Zeitung Steiermark Graz Austria
11 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Kassel Germany
12 Jagran Prakashan Ltd. Dainik Jagran Noida India
13 MHS Print GmbH Stuttgarter Zeitung Esslingen Germany
14 Printing Partners Paal-Beringen Het Nieuwsblad Paal-Beringen Belgium
15 Sakal Media Private Ltd. Sakal Kohlapur India
16 Sakal Media Private Ltd. Sakal Pune India
17 The Printers (Mysore) Pvt. Ltd. Prajavani Bangalore India

Access the complete membership list at ICQC 2028 members.

Star Club and Millennium club members

These two distinct elite membership clubs recognize repeat and consistent print excellence built over decades. A publication from a print site enters the “STAR CLUB” by gaining five stars in lifetime through color quality membership (adds 1 star) or  ISO 12647-3 certification (adds 2 star) in life time and members reaching ten stars or more climb to the prestigious Millennium Club.

The new Millennium Club adds one new print site achieving 10-star status:

The Star Club list expands with four new new print sites achieving 5-star status:

  The complete Star Club members list is available for access at DOWNLOADS

 

Recognising the new members:

Qualified publications will be honoured with a certificate at “World Printers Summit 2026”  for color Quality club 2026 and new Star & Millennium club members on 04-06 October, Rotterdam, Netherlands. Also, publications from South Asia can collect their certificates during awards event at WAN-IFRA India annual conference, ”Indian Printers Summit 2026 “, 18:00 IST on 09 September’2026 in Westin, Pune, India.  

Know more about the contest at cqc.wan-ifra.org or contact, Sarah Lesting, sarah.lesting@wan-ifra.org and Prabhu Natrajan, prabhu.n@wan-ifra.org