Newest Online Journalism Award Category Won by Florida Today, Wired.com
(TORONTO, ONTARIO Oct. 19)— Florida Today’s space coverage and Wired.com’s defense reporting took honors in the 2007 Online Journalism Awards’ newest category, Online Beat Reporting.
The Oakland Tribune won the second year of the Knight Public Service prize in the eighth annual Online Journalism Awards for “Not Just a Number.” The organization took the lead to combat an epidemic of violence in its community and made that community an integral part of the ongoing and evolving project.
Ventura Country, the Denver Post and USA Today won the awards for General Excellence in Online Journalism. The Oakland Tribune also won the award for Service Journalism. And the judges singled out The Washington Post for a special award for innovation for its “OnBeing” project.
The Online Journalism Awards – emblematic of the best in online journalism – are administered by the Online News Association and the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communications. They were handed out at the ONA’s annual conference at the Sheraton Centre in Toronto, Ontario, on Friday, Oct. 19.
The Knight Award for Public Service honors digital journalism that produces compelling coverage of a vital issue and engages a geographic community. Funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the award carries a $5,000 prize.
Following are the categories, winners and judges’ comments. Links to the winners and finalists can be found at the ONA Web site.
Knight Award for Public Service: Oakland Tribune, Not Just A Number
This entry was especially impressive for how integral the community being coverage became to the project. People profiled became active, prompting others to tell their stories and get involved as well. Another strong point was that this is a continuing and evolving site that emphasizes the level of commitment Tribune has to its community.
General Excellence, small sites: Ventura County Star
The site exemplifies how a decision to fully immerse a news organization in online journalism can transform a small local newspaper into a multiple media information source for the community.
General Excellence, medium sites: Denver Post
The winner is a very deserving site that showcases strong journalism and thinks of news holistically.
General Excellence, large sites: USA Today
A site that made a huge leap in the last year with a commitment to put their readers in the center of the news, not just at the receiving end.
Breaking News, Roanoke.com, Virginia Tech Shootings
They reacted swiftly and appropriately, making it very much an unfolding local drama in real time and did a highly credible job.
Breaking News, large sites, Associated Press
The winner put together the most compelling demonstration and pulled it together fluidly, creating a well-rounded and informative package.
Commentary, small sites: Wild Bill, New West
The winner takes his issues to a different level. He found his audience and ran with it.
Commentary, medium sites: Walt Handelsman Newsday
The winner is a trailblazer and delivers the appeal of the Web’s amateur spoofs with pro artistry.
Commentary, large sites: William Saletan, Slate
You can spend all day going through his columns, playing around and learning stuff.
Outstanding Use of Digital Media, small sites: Wisconsin State Journal, Hip Hop 101
The winner used imagination and originality in its package. It was fun to explore and showed a connection to its community and an awareness of what was going on.
Outstanding Use of Digital Media, large sites, Discovery, Everest Beyond the Limit
The winner took a big palette of tools and used them exceptionally. A really well done example that went beyond the obvious.
Specialty Journalism, small sites: Council on Foreign Relations
The site’s strength is its voice of authority and quality of journalism. There’s no fluff here.
Specialty Journalism, large sites: Live Science
The winner did a good job of keeping an often static subject fresh and new and you really had a sense they are on top of it.
Service Journalism, small sites: Oakland Tribune, Not Just a Number
The fact that the site continues to evolve underscores the potential of online journalism to adapt news coverage and community service as needed.
Service Journalism, large sites: Toronto Star, Lost in Migration
The winning package made its vital issue easy to understand for the audience most affected and allowed readers to weigh in with their own stories.
Investigative Journalism, large sites: ABC News, Brian Ross Investigates: “The Mark Foley Investigation”
The winning entry was first-rate journalism that the organization brok eonline — with major political ramifications in the 2006 elections.
Investigative Journalism, small sites: Center for Investigative Reporting, Danger on Your Plate
The winning entry was a powerful series, an example of pioneering journalism in Bosnia-Herzegovina where journalism that questions government is rare.
Student Journalism: A TIE Border Beat, University of Arizona and Our Tahoe, University of Nevada-Reno.
Our Tahoe was applauded for making an effort to draw in the audience and give them the tools to be part of the solution to a community problem.
Border Beat was cited as an ambitious project and concerted group effort to provide an ongoing resource not just for a class but for the community and other journalists as well.
The finalists and the winners were selected through a two-step process. First, a group of about 100 journalists screened entries in each category and narrowed them to a set of five to ten nominees. The OJA judges, a group of nine journalists with extensive experience in new and old media, met at USC to review the nominees and pick the finalists and the winners, The Online Journalism Awards received more than 700 English-language entries from Web sites in the United States and abroad. The judges followed a strict recusal policy, leaving the judging room during discussions and not voting in any category in which their own sites came up for review.
The judges for the 2007 awards were:
Lane Beauchamp. Managing Editor CBS Television Stations Digital Media
Suki Dardarian, Managing Editor, News Coverage and Enterprise, The Seattle Times
Jeff Dionise, Design Director, USA Today
Rich Jaroslovsky, Executive Editor, government and economy, Bloomberg News
Sandeep Junnarkar, Associate Professor. The CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
Logan Molen, Vice president / Interactive Media, The Bakersfield Californian
Kim Moy, Managing Editor, Broadband at Yahoo!
Jill Hunter Pellettieri, Slate Magazine
Laura Sellers, Online Director, East Oregonian Publishing Co.
Jonathan Weber, Founder and Editor in Chief, New West
Located in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California, the USC Annenberg School for Communication (www.annenberg.usc.edu) is among the nation's leading institutions devoted to the study of journalism and communication, and their impact on politics, culture and society. With an enrollment of more than 1,900 graduate and undergraduate students, USC Annenberg offers bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in journalism, communication, public diplomacy and public relations.
The Online News Association is an association composed largely of professional online journalists. The Association has more than 1,200 professional members whose principal livelihood involves gathering or producing news for digital presentation. The membership includes news writers, producers, designers, editors, photographers and others who produce news for the Internet or other digital delivery systems, as well as academic members and others interested in the development of online journalism.
For further information contact:
Lori Schwab
Executive Director
Online News Association
lschwab@journalists.org
646-290-7900
