CHICAGO, August 4, 2008 - Finalists for the 9th annual Online Journalism Awards, which honor excellence in digital journalism, were announced today by the Online News Association (ONA). A team of journalists, representing a diverse cross-section of the industry, judged the contest during a two-day event in Chicago, August 1-2.
The winners will be announced at the 2008 ONA Conference Awards Banquet on Sept. 13 at the Capital Hilton in Washington, D.C.
The finalists are:
Breaking News, Large Site
- LATimes.com, Wildfires
- NPR.org, China Earthquake
- NYTimes.com, Eliot Spitzer's Resignation
- SignOnSanDiego.com, San Diego Union Tribune, Wildfires
- StarTribune.com, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Bridge Collapse
Breaking News, Medium Site
- LasVegasSun.com, Monte Carlo Fire
- OregonLive.com, The Oregonian, Oregon Storm Map
- STLtoday.com, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Kirkwood Shootings
- Tennessean.com, Tennessee Tornado
General Excellence in Online Journalism, Large Site (Non-English)
- Einestages.de, Germany
- ELPAIS.com, Spain
- Oglobo.com.br, Brazil
General Excellence in Online Journalism, Small Site (Non-English)
- Aldiatx.com USA
- Blogtrotters.fr, France
- Soitu.es, Spain
General Excellence, Large Site
General Excellence, Medium Site
General Excellence, Small Site
- Army Times
- CQPolitics.com, Congressional Quarterly Politics
- NewWest.net
- RapidCityJournal.com, Rapid City (S.D.) Journal
Investigative, Large Site
- DallasNews.com, The Dallas Morning News, Unequal Justice
- TheGlobeandMail.com, Talking to the Taliban
- Salon.com, Mark Benjamin, Inside the CIA's Notorious "Black Sites"
- TheSmokingGun.com, Big Phat Liar
Investigative, Small Site
- 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
- RecordOnline.com, The Times Herald Record (Middletown, N.Y.), 'I Didn't Do That Murder' Lebrew Jones and the death of Micki Hall
Knight Award for Public Service
- DallasNews.com, The Dallas Morning News, Unequal Justice
- DesmoinesRegister.com, Iowa Caucuses
- Freep.com, Detroit Free Press, Kwame Kilpatrick: A mayor in crisis
- WashingtonPost.com, Fixing D.C. schools
Multimedia Feature, Large Site
- CNN.com, Eyewitness to Murder: The King Assassination
- LATimes.com, Burnover
- MSNBC.com, Battle of the bags: Paper vs. plastic
- Reuters.com, Bearing Witness
Multimedia Feature, Medium Site
- Cleveland.com, Johanna: Facing Forward
- TheGlobeandMail.com, Talking to the Taliban
- HonoluluAdvertizer.com, When Pedestrians Die
- LasVegasSun.com, Boomtown
- STLtoday.com, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Reporting for Duty
Multimedia Feature, Small Site
- Arkansas Online, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, The Soldier's Wife
- GEO.fr, Hidden World
- OttawaCitizen.com, 70 Years of Superman
- Roanoke.com, The Roanoke Times, Age of Uncertainty
Online Commentary, Large Sites
- God-O-Meter, Beliefnet.com
- Nick Anderson, Chron.com, The Houston Chronicle
- Nicholas Kristof, NYTimes.com, On the Ground
Online Commentary, Medium Site
- The Bottom Line, DallasNews.com, The Dallas Morning News
- Joel Schwartzberg, NJ.com, N.J. Voices
Online Commentary, Small Sites
- Catherine Brahic, NewScientist.com
- Craig Crawford, Trail Mix, CQPolitics.com
- Mark Fiore, MarkFiore.com, animated political cartoons
Online Video Presentation
- Border Stories
- DesMoinesRegister.com, Insights into the Candidates
- OregonLive.com, The Oregonian, Living to the End
- Slate.com, Hillary's Inner Tracy Flick
Outstanding Use of Digital Technology, Large Site
- DesMoinesRegister.com, Iowa Caucuses
- LATimes.com, California War Dead
- NYTimes.com, Politics
- WashingtonPost.com, Young Lives at Risk: Our Overweight Children
Outstanding Use of Digital Technology, Small Site
- Everyblock.com
- 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
Student Journalism
- University of California, Berkeley, Mauro's Shift
- Justin McLachlan, West Virginia University, Where Doubt Remains
- Taylor Hayden, Western Kentucky University, Closer to Home: A Daughter Becomes Caregiver
- University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill & Universidad de los Andes, South of Here
Topical Reporting, Large Sites
- LATimes.com, Homicide Report
- USAToday.com, Today in the Sky
Topical Reporting, Small Sites
- Azstarnet.com, Arizona Daily Star, Immigration in the Spotlight
- 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
Breaking News, Small Site
No award
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 categories in which their own organization or organizations they are associated with were entered.
