by Hoag Levins

HOUSTON (Feb. 14) -- All ten of this year's Editor & Publisher's World's Best Online Newspaper Service Awards went to American publications despite a revamped judging program that cast a wide international net and evaluated interactive newspaper sites on six continents. The New York Times on the Web won top honors in two of the world categories -- Best Overall Online Newspaper Service and Best Editorial Content for a Web site operated by a newspaper with over 100,000 circulation.

The results were announced earlier today at a ceremony that was a centerpiece of the four-day Interactive Newspaper '97 Conference at the Houston Hyatt. The contest pitted 160 news Web sites against each other in ten categories for recognition as the world's best in their field.

In an effort to expand this second annual awards program into a true worldwide competition E&P created a panel of 21 respected international authorities in the field of interactive journalism as judges. The judges hailed from a total of 12 countries and, among themselves, were fluent in 17 languages from Portuguese and Dutch to Chinese and Hindi.

Ultimately, they clicked through thousands of Web pages at sites originating in 26 different countries and written in nine different languages. In order to ensure the highest possible level of objectivity the judges used a numerical rating system to score various aspects of each Web site as well as the overall site. The final results were tabulated in secret so that none of the judges were aware of the winner until this afternoon's banquet.

The following winners were announced:

Best Overall Online Newspaper Service

Over 100,000 daily newspapers
New York Times on the Web

Under 100,000 daily newspapers
Sunline, Charlotte Sun Herald,
Charlotte Harbor, Florida, USA

Weekly and other newspapers
Academe Today, The Chronicle of Higher Education
Washington, D.C., USA

Under 100,000 daily newspapers
Space Online, Florida Today,
Melbourne, Florida, USA

Weekly and other newspapers
@ComputerWorld, ComputerWorld,
Framingham, Massachusetts, USA

Under 100,000 daily newspapers
Bakersfield Californian,
California, USA

Weekly and other newspapers
Review.net, Warfield's Business & Technology,
West Palm Beach, Florida, USA

Judges' Remarks

Christian Science Monitor Electronic Edition

Kansas City Star, Kansas City, Missouri, USA

Star Tribune Online, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

Tampa Bay Online, Tampa Tribune, Florida, USA

ChicagoTribune.com, Chicago Tribune, Illinois, USA

Irish Times on the Web, The Irish Times, Dublin, Ireland

Syracuse Online, Syracuse Newspapers, New York, USA

DallasNews.com, The Dallas Morning News, Texas, USA

Jerusalem Post Internet Edition, Israel

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