The Leicester Mercury and Derby Evening Telegraph were among 50 newspapers from around the world, including the New York Times and the Sydney Morning Herald, to be accepted into Ifra's International Newspaper Color Quality Club 2004-2006.
David Booth, press room manager for the Derby Evening Telegraph, said: "We're absolutely cock-a-hoop. It's a tremendous achievement for us and we've been trying for years. We've got very close on two occasions, but this time we've got in."
The Northcliffe titles were judged on colour printing for daily runs and test images. Both use Goss presses, Sun Chemical inks and Agfa CTP.
