China Daily European Weekly wins the International Newspaper of the Year award at this year's Newspaper Awards in London, April 1, 2014. [Photo by Jiang Shan/China Daily]

China Daily European Weekly won the International Newspaper of the Year award at this year's Newspaper Awards in London on Tuesday, the first time that a Chinese media organization has won the award.

The 2014 Newspaper Awards - known as the "'Oscars' of the media industry" - recognize the best in print and digital news media production and innovation.

The judges gave China Daily European Weekly the award for its "superb design, attractive layout and exceptional print," adding that the newspaper's engaging content mix combined with superb layouts made this a stand-out title.

Five other publications were nominated in this category, including Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung and Abendzeitung and the UK's Telegraph Weekly.

The winners of the 2014 Newspaper Awards were announced at a ceremony in London on Tuesday night

In other categories, The Daily Telegraph was named National Newspaper of the Year, the Irish News was named Newspaper of the Year and the Financial Times Web App won in the category of Newspaper App of the Year.

Gary Cullum, director of the Newspaper Awards, said: "The 2014 panel of judges really had their work cut out this year. Not only were they presented with around 1,000 newspapers, both print and digital, the quality of entry was tremendous."

"The shortlist once again provides a showcase for all that is excellent in the newspaper industry both from this country and around the world."

China Daily, China's leading English-language newspaper, launched its European Weekly in December 2010.

China Daily European Weekly is available in nearly 30 countries in Europe and has become the continent's most widely-read Chinese paper in English.