Online Journalism Awards Announced

By: (AP) CNET News.com and washingtonpost.com won multiple honors at the third annual Online Journalism Awards announced Friday night by the Online News Association and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism at the ONA annual conference at the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel.

The contest, which honors excellence in Internet journalism, received 728 entries from 10 countries and was judged by a team of distinguished journalism leaders.

The winners were announced at the ONA Awards Banquet during the two-day conference. Coverage of the conference is available at http://www.journalists.org.

"We know the digital medium continues to grow as a news source for the public and therefore we anticipated many quality entries in this year's awards program. But the depth and diversity of the entries were even more outstanding than expected," said Bruce Koon, president of ONA and executive news editor of Knight Ridder Digital.

"That reflects an awful lot of hard work and commitment by online news teams and individuals, and accomplished in what are tough economic times," he said. "All journalists, regardless of where they ply their craft, should be proud of these efforts."

"The winners and finalists this year represent the very best of online journalism" said Sreenath Sreenivasan, administrator of the awards and a professor of new media at the school. "These awards set high standards to which all who work in new media can aspire," he said.

CNET News.com won awards for general excellence, breaking news, and enterprise journalism.

Washingtonpost.com took home honors for general excellence and enterprise journalism.

Other winners included BeniciaNews.com; PBS.org; CNN.com; Gotham Gazette.com; ChicagoTribune.com; Slate; and MSNBC.com.

The contest was coordinated by ONA awards committee co-chairs Neil Chase, managing editor at CBS MarketWatch; and Michael Silberman, acting editor-in-chief at MSNBC.com. Neither served as a judge.

The contest received 728 English-language entries from 200 Web sites and individuals in 10 countries and 31 U.S. states. Three countries (the United States, Canada and Denmark) were among the 64 finalists.

The Online Journalism Awards are among several major journalism awards administered by Columbia, including the Pulitzer Prizes, the National Magazine Awards, the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Awards for broadcast journalism, and the Maria Moors Cabot Prizes for inter-American understanding.

A complete list of the winners and finalists can be found at http://www.onlinejournalismawards.org/pr-2002win8.html.