The Society of Publishers in Asia was founded in Hong Kong in 1982 to encourage best practices in the publishing industry, set a high bar for journalistic standards and be a voice for press freedom and journalists' rights in Asia Pacific.

As part of that mandate, SOPA established the annual SOPA Awards for Editorial Excellence in 1999 to recognize and reward great journalism. The annual awards are highly coveted and have become a highlight of the regional media calendar.

SOPA's Editorial Committee, composed of senior journalists, oversees the awards in coordination with SOPA's board of publisher representatives.  All members volunteer their time throughout the year leading up to the annual awards.

In 2011, the University of Hong Kong's Journalism & Media Studies Centre was appointed to administer the awards, including recruiting distinguished former or current journalists and academics from around the world to be judges. Each year, those judges donate their time and make sure editorial standards are upheld.

More than 90 awards are given out each year in an array of categories, which are periodically reviewed to keep pace with the ever-evolving ways that journalism is delivered to consumers. In recent years, we have added Video Reporting and Journalistic Innovation to our lineup; the Public Service Journalism award replaced the Journalist of the Year category; and we have launched the category of Young Journalist of the Year.

Two more new categories were added for the 2022 Awards: Excellence in Technology Reporting and Excellence in Audio Reporting.

Since the awards were established, they have been open to digital and print publications in English and Chinese.  In 2023, to mark the 25th anniversary of the SOPA Awards, we are expanding our regional reach to include a new category for Bahasa Indonesia publications.