List of Winners

by Hoag Levins

SEATTLE (Feb. 6) -- The Chicago Tribune's Web site won three top honors in Editor & Publisher's annual Best Online Newspaper Awards -- Best Overall US site for a newspaper with over 100,000 circulation, Best Business Section, and Best Design. It is the first time that any publication has received three awards.

Town Online, the Web site of multiple publications of the Community Newspaper Company in Needham, Mass., won two awards -- Best Overall US site for a weekly newspaper and Best Commercial Application in an Online Newspaper.

The E&P Best Online Newspaper Awards, also called the "EPpys," were announced at a mid-afternoon ceremony today at the Interactive Newspapers '98 conference at the Sheraton Hotel & Towers in Seattle. The contest pitted newspaper Web sites against each other in fourteen categories for recognition as the world's best.

400+ Entries from 33 Countries

The international competition received more than 400 entries from newspaper Web sites in 33 countries ranging from Russia and Argentina to Pakistan and Australia. That is nearly three times the number of entries submitted for last year's contest.

Administrated for Editor & Publisher Co., by the Internet consulting firm, Interactive Media Associates, Inc., of Parsippany, N.J., the contest was judged by a panel of 23 respected journalism and online publishing authorities from ten countries.

92 Entries in "Best Special Section" Category

According to Len Muscarella, managing director of Interactive Media Associates, the category that received the highest number of entries -- 92 -- was Best Special Section in a Newspaper Online Service. Many US newspapers, which are barred from submitting exclusively-online investigative reports and special projects to other award programs like the Pulitzer Prizes, appear to have submitted them instead as "Best Special Section" entries in the EPpy program.

The "Best Special Section" winner that beat out 91 other entries was Philadelphia Online's "Blackhawk Down," which is believed to be the largest journalism project ever published on the Internet. Philadelphia Online is the Web site of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News.

Praised by the judges as "excellent" and "very impressive," the 30-part, multimedia "Blackhawk Down" Web series combined hard reporting, novel-like narrative, audio, video, animated graphics, and photographs to tell the inside story of the disastrous battle between U.S. troops and Somalian rebels in Mogadishu in 1993.

List of Winners

The 14 winners of this year's EPpy awards are:

Best Overall US Newspaper Online Service
Circulation greater than 100,000
Chicago.tribune.com (Chicago Tribune, Tribune Co., Chicago, Ill.)
www.chicago.tribune.com

Judges Comments on this Site

Best Overall US Newspaper Online Service
Circulation Under 100,000
Sunline (Charlotte Sun Herald, Sun Coast Media Group, Charlotte Harbor, Fla.)
www.charlotte-florida.com

Judges Comments on this Site

Best Overall US Newspaper Online Service:
Weekly, Community, Free & alternative
Town Online (Community Newspaper Company, Needham, Mass.)
www.townonline.com

Judges Comments on this Site

Best Overall non-US Newspaper Online Service
South China Morning Post Internet Edition (South China Morning Post, Hong Kong)
www.scmp.com

Judges Comments on this Site

Best non-Newspaper Online News Service
CNET's News.com (San Francisco, Calif.)
www.news.com

Judges Comments on this Site

Best Promotion of a Newspaper Online Service
Careers.boston.com (Boston Globe, New York Times Co., New York, N.Y.)
careers.boston.com

Judges Comments on this Site

Best News Section in a Newspaper Online Service
The New York Times on the Web (New York Times, New York Times Co., New York, N.Y.)
www.nytimes.com

Judges Comments on this Site

Best Sports Section in a Newspaper Online Service
The Nando SportsServer (McClatchy Newspapers, Inc., Raleigh, N.C.)
www.sportserver.com

Judges Comments on this Site

Best Business Section in a Newspaper Online Service
Chicago.tribune.com Chicago Tribune, Tribune Co., Chicago, Ill.
www.chicago.tribune.com/business/index.htm

Judges Comments on this Site

Best Entertainment Section in a Newspaper Online Service
FreeTime (Startribune.com; Star Tribune, Cowles Media, Minneapolis, Minn.)
www.startribune.com/freetime

Judges Comments on this Site

Best Special Section in a Newspaper Online Service
"Blackhawk Down," Philadelphia Online , (Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, Knight Ridder, Philadelphia, Penn.)
www.phillynews.com/packages/somalia/nov16/default16.asp

Judges Comments on this Site

Best Design of a Newspaper Online Service
"Lost Mariners," (Chicago.tribune.com, Chicago Tribune, Tribune Co., Chicago, Ill.)
www.chicago.tribune.com/fun/ship

Judges Comments on this Site

Best Use of Interactivity in a Newspaper Online Service
"Money Games: Inside the NCAA," (Kansas City Star, Knight Ridder, Kansas City, Mo.)
www.kcstar.com/ncaa

Judges Comments on this Site

Best Commercial Application in a Newspaper Online Service
Town Online Working (Community Newspaper Company, Needham, Mass.)
www.townonline.com/working

Judges Comments on this Site