The winners were announced at the Online Journalism Awards Banquet during the ninth annual Online News Association conference, September 11-13 at the Capital Hilton, Washington, D.C.
Knight Award for Public Service
Winner
WashingtonPost.com, Fixing D.C. schools
"The winning entry is an excellent package that focuses on a specific issue of tremendous importance to the community. A very strong investigation, very well-written stories, and obviously a matter of great public import. If I was a parent in Washington D.C., I would be studying this."
Finalists
• DallasNews.com, The Dallas Morning News, Unequal Justice
• DesmoinesRegister.com, Iowa Caucuses
• Freep.com, Detroit Free Press, Kwame Kilpatrick: A mayor in crisis
General Excellence in Online Journalism, Large Site (Non-English)
Winner
ELPAIS.com, Spain
"The winner sets the benchmark by which others are measured. On a bedrock of first-class journalism it has built a brilliant suite of infographics that are rich in information, yet easy to consume. The site is a shining example of how traditional media can blossom in the digital arena."
Finalists
• Einestages.de, Germany
• Oglobo.com.br, Brazil
General Excellence in Online Journalism, Small Site (Non-English)
Winner
Soitu.es, Spain
"The winner is a brilliant example of the new, smaller independent online news, information and community sites. It balances rigorous journalism with the most innovative application of Web 2.0 practices, all packaged in a gorgeous design with unique attention to small touches of navigational genius."
Finalists
• Aldiatx.com USA
• Blogtrotters.fr, France
General Excellence, Large Site
Winner
CNN.com
"A site that made substantial changes in the past year, making it one of the more dynamic destinations out there. One that takes user content seriously and integrates it into the whole, opening a new era of networked content. One judge predicted: 'Everyone will copy it.'"
Finalists
• HuffingtonPost.com
• NYTimes.com
• Politico.com
• Reuters.com
General Excellence, Medium Site
Winner
LasVegasSun.com
"A winner with an impressive visual approach to journalism that helped them stand out as being a little bit different and very strong. One of the best newspaper Web sites I have seen, with high quality multimedia content that is integral to the site, not an afterthought or secondary element."
Finalists
• MinnesotaPublicRadio.com
• Truthdig
• WRAL.com
General Excellence, Small Site
Winner
Army Times
"The winner clearly knows its audience, speaks to it honestly and helps it speak to itself. It is relentlessly helpful, packed with news and information that focuses on the needs of its users. What it gets back is an engaged community."
Finalists
• CQPolitics.com, Congressional Quarterly Politics
• NewWest.net
• RapidCityJournal.com, Rapid City (S.D.) Journal
Breaking News, Large Site
Winner
NYTimes.com, Eliot Spitzer's Resignation
"The winner 'hit it out of the park.' The winner could have held the story but chose not to. They broke the story on the Web and used the Web to keep it going. They used the tools. For almost an entire news cycle nobody else had anything. It was a remarkable story remarkably handled."
Finalists
• LATimes.com, Wildfires
• NPR.org, China Earthquake
• SignOnSanDiego.com, San Diego Union Tribune, Wildfires
• StarTribune.com, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Bridge Collapse
Breaking News, Medium Site
Winner
STLtoday.com, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Kirkwood Shootings
"The winner's coverage stands out. They sent people out immediately and put together a nice collection of multimedia. That included an impressive piece of multimedia for them to toss together in a relatively quick period of time when they were still trying to figure out exactly what happened."
Finalists
• LasVegasSun.com, Monte Carlo Fire
• OregonLive.com, The Oregonian, Oregon Storm Map
• Tennessean.com, Tennessee Tornado
Breaking News, Small Site
No award
Investigative, Large Site
Winner (tie)
• DallasNews.com, The Dallas Morning News, Unequal Justice
"The Dallas Morning News entry dug under the surface of conventional wisdom, asked why is this happening and put a face on the problem - what an investigative piece is all about. It was effecting, effective and well produced."
• TheGlobeandMail.com, Talking to the Taliban
"The Globe and Mail took a simple idea, asked one of those obvious questions that never quite get asked and put together an impressive package that couldn't have worked in any other medium."
Finalists
• Salon.com, Mark Benjamin, Inside the CIA's Notorious "Black Sites"
• TheSmokingGun.com, Big Phat Liar
Investigative, Small Site
Winner
RecordOnline.com, The Times Herald Record (Middletown, N.Y.), 'I Didn't Do That Murder': Lebrew Jones and the death of Micki Hall
"The winning entry was a very impressive piece of pure reporting in a classic genre of investigative journalism. It was a genre reinvented and re-architected for the digital age."
Finalists
• Azstarnet.com, Arizona Daily Star, Schools promote students despite widespread failure
• EastValleyTribune.com, East Valley (Ariz.) Tribune, Blood and Money
• NWHerald.com, The Northwest (Ill.) Herald, Coincidence or Cluster: The McCullom Lake brain cancer lawsuits
• RawStory.com, The Permanent Republican Majority
Multimedia Feature, Large Site
Winner
Reuters.com/MediaStorm, Bearing Witness
"The winner showed the best combination of strong content and compelling presentation. The entry worked on several different levels and made you want to go back and see it again."
Finalists
• CNN.com, Eyewitness to Murder: The King Assassination
• LATimes.com, Burnover
• MSNBC.com, Battle of the bags: Paper vs. plastic
Multimedia Feature, Medium Site
Winner
STLtoday.com, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Reporting for Duty
"The winning entry was a really strong presentation with incredible video, great use of ambient sound and nice touches such as shareable photos and a You Tube channel for the video."
Finalists
• Cleveland.com, Johanna: Facing Forward
• TheGlobeandMail.com, Talking to the Taliban
• HonoluluAdvertizer.com, When Pedestrians Die
• LasVegasSun.com, Boomtown
Multimedia Feature, Small Site
Winner
GEO.fr, Hidden World
"The winning entry was one of the best examples of connecting a lot of deep, rich content into one fluid experience. It was clear and crisp and addicting. "
Finalists
• Arkansas Online, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, The Soldier's Wife
• OttawaCitizen.com, 70 Years of Superman
• Roanoke.com, The Roanoke Times, Age of Uncertainty
Online Commentary, Large Sites
Winner
God-O-Meter, Beliefnet.com
"The winner gives a voice to an increasingly hot topic - religion in politics - and tackles it in interesting ways."
Finalists
• Nick Anderson, Chron.com, The Houston Chronicle
• Nicholas Kristof, NYTimes.com, On the Ground
Online Commentary, Medium Site
Winner
The Bottom Line, DallasNews.com, The Dallas Morning News
"The winner presented a different way to tell a story with a very strong opinion and with photos that fit among the legendary images in the photographic canon of American journalism."
Finalist
Joel Schwartzberg, NJ.com, N.J. Voices
Online Commentary, Small Sites
Winner
Mark Fiore, MarkFiore.com, animated political cartoons
"The winner is pretty funny. He engages his users and his users respond in text and sound, promoting the whole concept of discussion. He takes up different issues, and he does it every week."
Finalists
• Catherine Brahic, NewScientist.com
• Craig Crawford, Trail Mix, CQPolitics.com
Online Video Presentation
Winner
OregonLive.com, The Oregonian, Living to the End
"The winner was just fantastic. It had all the elements. There wasn't a better way to communicate something this important."
Finalists
• Border Stories
• DesMoinesRegister.com, Insights into the Candidates
• Slate.com, Hillary's Inner Tracy Flick
Outstanding Use of Digital Technology, Large Site
Winner
DesMoinesRegister.com, Iowa Caucuses
"The winning entry was cited for the enormity of the undertaking with a relatively small staff. The execution was outstanding. They did a phenomenal job speaking to their audience."
Finalists
• LATimes.com, California War Dead
• NYTimes.com, Politics
• WashingtonPost.com, Young Lives at Risk: Our Overweight Children
Outstanding Use of Digital Technology, Small Site
Winner
Everyblock.com
"The winner simply was one of the most interesting things that have happened on the Web in the last year. They blew it out."
Finalists
• RecordOnline.com, The Times Herald Record (Middletown, N.Y.), How Safe Are Our Bridges?
• Roanoke.com, The Roanoke Times, Virginia Tech: One Year Later
Specialty Site Journalism
Winner
WebMD
"The winner offers up so much information but you can still find your way around it. The depth of that information is unprecedented. It has a strong grasp of its topic, authoritative reports and helpful tools."
Finalists
• Congressional Quarterly
• Cricinfo
• Politico
• Reznet
Student Journalism
Winner (tie)
• University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill & Universidad de los Andes, South of Here
"UNC-Chapel Hill and Universidad de los Andes won with excellent journalism, stunning photography, creative navigation, elegant structure, refreshing and enlightening content, all superbly executed technically."
• Taylor Hayden, Western Kentucky University, Closer to Home: A Daughter Becomes Caregiver
"Taylor Hayden at Western Kentucky put together a wonderful intimate portrait of a daughter and her parents with well-done video, still imagery within and a spare design that works well for the project."
Finalists
• University of California, Berkeley, Mauro's Shift
• Justin McLachlan, West Virginia University, Where Doubt Remains
Topical Reporting, Large Sites
Winner
USAToday.com, Today in the Sky
"The winner was on top of what's happening, giving users the tools they need, truly covering what's beyond the normal."
Finalist
LATimes.com, Homicide Report
"The winner brought together all the best elements in a project that was newsworthy, impressive in its aims, showing commitment to a topic vital within and beyond the immediate community."
Topical Reporting, Small Sites
Winner
Azstarnet.com, Arizona Daily Star, Immigration in the Spotlight
Finalists
• Reznet, The Indian Vote: When Candidates Come Calling
• Truthdig, Bill Boyarsky, On the Campaign Trail
• RecordOnline.com, The Times Herald Record (Middletown, N.Y.), Varsity845
The 11 judges of this year's awards were: Scott Anderson, online media consultant; Meredith Artley, Executive Editor, LATimes.com; Lane Beauchamp, Managing Editor, CBS Television Stations Digital Media Group (cbslocal.com); John Bolton, Online Editor, Arizona Daily Star (azstarnet.com); Curt Chandler, Professor, Penn State University (psu.edu); Jeff Dionise, Design Director, USAToday.com; Jon Dube, Director of Digital Media, CBC.ca; Rick Jaroslovsky, Executive Editor, Bloomberg.com; John Swansburg, Associate Editor, Slate.com; Jonathan Weber, Publisher and CEO, NewWest.net; Sarah Wright, Assistant Managing Editor of Multimedia, Yahoo! News (Yahoo.com).
Judges for the non-English awards were: Paul Brannan, Editor, Emerging Platforms, BBC.com; Eric Scherer, Director of Strategic Planning, Agence-France Presse; Katie King, Creative and Development Editor, MSN UK; and Rosental Alves, Professor & Knight Chair in Journalism, University of Texas at Austin, School of Journalism.
Judges were recused from discussing and voting in categories in which their own organization or organizations they are associated with were entered.
