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Friday, February 7, 2003 Media Cynic | Forum | Advertising | Classifieds | Jobs 2003 Digital Edge Awards Announced The Digital Edge Awards honor online publishers from newspapers of all sizes that cultivate relationships with new readers and interactively enrich advertisers' messages. This year's winners were selected from 118 entries in four categories -- Most Innovative Use of Digital Media: News Event Coverage, Most Innovative Use of Digital Media: Features/Enterprise, Best Sports Site and Best Advertising Program. "This year's recipients carry on a long tradition of innovation and provide a glimpse of the true power of online," said Ian Murdock, president of NAA's New Media Federation, and digital media director of Hearst Newspapers, New York City. "Stories like The Herald-Sun's 'The Long Road Home' and The Chicago Tribune's 'Still Standing' were captivating and complete, with interesting navigation and respect for the viewer, while The Washington Post's treatment of advertising for a jeweler was both attention getting and effective while being respectful to reader sensibilities. For those that argue that the Web is not a medium unto itself, viewing samples from this year's finalists and winners will undoubtedly convince them otherwise." The 2003 Digital Edge Award Winners Most Innovative Use of Digital Media: News Event Coverage, Circulation less than 75,000 Derailed Lives In-Forum/The Forum, Fargo, N.D. Comments: A train derailment unleashes a toxic cloud that creeps across a North Dakota town. The Forum's site reports on the aftermath with extensive investigative reporting, a chilling 911 call from a truck driver stranded on the highway and video from the local TV station owned by parent company Forum Communications. Most Innovative Use of Digital Media: News Event Coverage, Circulation 75,000 - 250,000 2002: The Race for Governor timesunion.com/Times Union, Albany, N.Y. Comments: The ideal site for time-starved citizens who crave a single source for campaign news. Timesunion.com presents side-by-side comparisons of the candidates' positions on 10 essential issues, audio quotes from the campaign trail, and a Web-only reporter's notebook updated with mid-day developments. Visitors can view the candidates' TV commercials, then read analysis of the truthfulness of the ads claims and the message it intends to deliver. Most Innovative Use of Digital Media: News Event Coverage, Circulation over 250,000 Still Standing: A Portrait of America One Year Later chicagotribune.com/Chicago Tribune Comments: Many sites entered their anniversary coverage of the events of Sept. 11, 2001, but only one deserved an Edgie. "Still Standing" presents 12 unique reports categorized by location (Midwest, New York, Pentagon) and topic (Culture and Religion, Airport Security), and each segment evokes an emotional response to columns, articles, photo galleries and remembrances from the online community. The project exemplifies the Tribune Co.'s dedication to cooperation across its media properties. Most Innovative Use of Digital Media: Features/Enterprise, Circulation less than 75,000 Long Road Home heraldsun.com/The Herald-Sun, Durham, N.C. Comments: By coincidence, all of the features/enterprise winners focus on courageous journeys. Heraldsun.com recreates a print series about an illegal immigrant's return to his family in Mexico. Images, voice-over narration and music combine to create an engrossing story. "Long Road Home" improves upon the documentary presentation style that earned the site an Edgie in the same category in 2001. Most Innovative Use of Digital Media: Features/Enterprise, Circulation 75,000 - 250,000 Voyageofrediscovery.com InsideVC.com/Ventura County (Calif.) Star Comments: Nearly 200 years after Lewis and Clark explored the uncharted western United States, senior reporter John Krist retraces the route. The results: InsideVC.com makes some history of its own with a remarkably detailed travelogue that lets the viewer decide whether to navigate sequentially or create their own route, complete with compelling audio journals, maps, historical information and images. Most Innovative Use of Digital Media: Features/Enterprise, Circulation over 250,000 Enrique's Journey latimes.com/Los Angeles Times Comments: Latimes.com invites Web viewers to immerse themselves in the story of a teenage boy who journeys from Honduras to North Carolina in order to find his mother. Along the way, visitors trace the voyage with text from author Sonia Nazario and photographs by Don Bartletti, and access a world of details by clicking on maps, sidebar articles, statistics, video explanations by Nazario and a Bartletti slideshow. Best Sports Site, Circulation less than 75,000 KUSports.com LJWorld.com/Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World Comments: A treasure for fans of the University of Kansas' athletics programs, KUSports.com embodies all of the components of a site produced by a major-market newspaper: layers of audio and video highlights, deep historical information, customized editions for e-mail and handheld devices, and invitations for visitors to pose questions to the basketball editor and interact with one another. Best Sports Site, Circulation 75,000 - 250,000 GoVols.com KnoxNews.com/The Knoxville (Tenn.) News-Sentinel Comments: A note on KnoxNews.com reminds viewers that it's not the official site of the University of Tennessee. It's a necessary disclaimer. Volunteer fans can depend on the site for extensive news and analysis, photo slideshows and an entertaining guide to pre-game football partying where fans share their "tailgate tales." Best Sports Site, Circulation over 250,000 Cleveland.com Sports Cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer Comments: Cleveland.com invites its audience to feast on a constantly replenished array of professional, college and high school sports content. They can chat in real-time with writers and a local TV sports director, listen to Webcasts of high school football games, register for 12 e-mail newsletters, and post their thoughts on any of 45 high school forums, categorized by sport and localized by school districts. Best Advertising Program, Circulation less than 75,000 Today at Dillard's Caller.com/Corpus Christi Caller-Times Comments: Caller.com's multi-faceted program allowed Dillard's, a top client in the print newspaper, to achieve its goals of extending brand preference and brand affinity and driving traffic to the local store. The site employed a variety of online advertising formats and created awareness for specific apparel items culled from Dillard's print ads. Best Advertising Program, Circulation 75,000 - 250,000 OnWisconsin.com Golf Guide Journal Interactive/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Comments: Advertisers daydream about campaigns that integrate their brand with valuable information for their target audience. They can stop dreaming and visit the OnWisconsin.com Golf Guide, a collection of 90-second video tips from the pros at one of the site's sponsors, plus airborne tours of local courses and online golf lessons. Best Advertising Program, Circulation over 250,000 Mervis Diamonds/E-Diamonds washingtonpost.com/Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Comments: With playful, smartly targeted rich-media ads and a contest that gathered prospective customers' names and e-mail addresses, washingtonpost.com produced leads that generated a better close rate and dollar-volume per sale than radio advertising. Twenty-one digital-media journalists, advertising experts, analysts and educators served as judges, each assigned to a category based on their professional expertise. They considered the richness of editorial information, reader services, design presentation, multimedia storytelling and revenue models when reviewing entries. New Media Federation members nominate candidates for the New Media Pioneer Award and then select the winner through an email vote.
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