WASHINGTON, D.C.—NOLA.com won the inaugural Knight Public Service prize in the seventh annual Online Journalism Awards for its coverage of Hurricane Katrina and the significant effect it had and still has on the New Orleans community.
The Center for Public Integrity, Roanoke.com and MSNBC.com won the awards for General Excellence in Online Journalism. NOLA.com’s Katrina coverage also won an award for Breaking News.
The Online Journalism Awards – emblematic of the best in online journalism – are administered by the Online News Association and the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communications. They were handed out at the ONA’s annual conference at the Capital Hilton in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, Oct. 7.
The Knight Award for Public Service, awarded for the first time this year, honors digital journalism that produces compelling coverage of a vital issue and engages a geographic community. Funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the award carries a $5,000 prize.
“All the nominees showed journalists at their best – working to improve people’s lives. NOLA.com was an outstanding example of journalists working under unbelievable conditions to literally keep a fracturing community together,” said Gary Kebbel, Journalism Program Officer of the Knight Foundation.
The other finalists for the Public Service Award were The Bergen County Record for Toxic Legacy, an examination of the affects of industrial pollution in its community; Newsday’s investigation of Long Island’s volunteer fire departments; the Chicago Tribune’s probe of mortgage scams in the city’s poorest communities, and the Sun Herald’s coverage of Hurricane Katrina in southern Mississippi.
Following are the categories, winners and judges’ comments. Links to the winners and finalists can be found at the ONA Web site at www.journalists.org
General Excellence, small sites: The Center for Public Integrity
The winner set the news agenda for days and weeks with unassailable journalism. Not only did they do extremely impressive journalism this period, but year in and year out they continue to do so.
Note: The Center for Public Integrity is a Knight Foundation grantee.
General Excellence, medium sites: Roanoke.com
Roanoke.com had design and navigation above average. It took chances where others didn’t and has a spirit of experimentation that harkens back to the earliest days of the Web.
General Excellence, large sites: MSNBC.com
The site inspires with its breadth and timeliness of its coverage day in and day out.
Breaking New, small sites, SunHerald.com for coverage of Hurricane Katrina.
The winner rose to the occasion, marshalling resources in the face of a cataclysmic event and corralling locally generated content.
Breaking News, large sites, NOLA.com for coverage of Hurricane Katrina.
The site brought scarce resources to an overwhelming story to serve its audience when it was physically inundated. While duress isn’t cited in the rules, deadline pressure is. And there’s no pressure greater than physical duress.
Commentary, small sites: Good Morning Silicon Valley
It’s a site I would go to everyday, with freshness, insight and a way to respond.
Commentary, medium sites: Stuck in the 80s, TampaBay.com
A great theme well executed. And a hoot to visit.
Commentary, large sites: David Pogue in The New York Times
The winner was witty, fun with excellent comments and a lot of personality, who engages the audience on many levels and manages to be successful and totally different in his print columns and blog.
Multiple Media, small sites: Montgomery Advertiser for the Montgomery Boycott Anniversary.
The winner took its work to the next level, spanning front pages of newspapers to online video to a database of more than 500 stories. Well designed and thoughtfully done.
Multiple Media, large sites, MSNBC.com Rising from the Ruins, the Aftermath of Katrina.
On top of the winner’s great journalism, there was a sense of serendipity by stumbling into stories and features. Great integration of all the media in a unique and thoroughly engaging package.
Specialty Journalism, small sites: Fine Woodworking
The winner was indispensable and comprehensive. Enjoyable even if woodworking wasn’t your thing.
Specialty Journalism, large sites: ESPN Insider
The winner had tons and tons of stuff. It was well designed, and the writing was good and detailed. It’s changing the landscape of how people process the information.
Service Journalism, small sites: Gulfcoastnews.com’s Katrina Survivor Database
A beautiful example of service journalism done fast, done cheap and meeting a need.
Service Journalism, large sites: Chicago Tribune for Mercury Menace, an examination of contaminated seafood
The winning package presented a hidden problem and took the time to illustrate it in a variety of ways. It was a hard-hitting, change-your-life piece.
Investigative Journalism, small sites: WTHR’s Cause for Alarm, an examination of the tornado alarm system in Indiana
The winner did it right, illustrating and explaining a problem that directly and dramatically affects its communities. If you want to do online work, here’s how to do it.
Student Journalism: Jeff DelViscio and Khody Akhavi from Columbia University for Rezoned, an examination of a contentious rezoning proposal in Brooklyn.
The winner parsed the issue in real detail and comprehensively covered each piece of it. Of all the pieces this was the one that scored the highest from a reporting perspective.
The finalists and the winners were selected through a two-step process. First, a group of about 100 journalists screened entries in each category and narrowed them to a set of five to ten nominees. The OJA judges, a group of nine journalists with extensive experience in new and old media, met at USC to pick the finalists and the winners, then reviewed these nominees.
The Online Journalism Awards received 694 English-language entries from Web sites in the United States and abroad. The judges followed a strict recusal policy, leaving the judging room during discussions and not voting in any category in which their own sites came up for review.
Rebecca Fairley Raney, Annenberg contest project manager, and Ruth Gersh, Director of Online Services, AP Digital and chairman of ONA’s Awards Committee, coordinated the contest.
The judges for the 2006 awards were:
- Mary Lou Fulton, VP Audience Development, The Bakersfield Californian
- Sue Gardner, Senior Director, CBC.Ca
- Mitch Gelman, Senior VP and Executive Producer, CNN.com
- Rich Jaroslovsky, Executive Editor, Government and Economy, Bloomberg News
- Chris Jennewein, Director of Internet operations, Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
- Anthony Moor, Editor, OrlandoSentinel.com
- Laura Sellers, Online Director, East Oregonian Publishing Co.
- Michael Silberman, VP & Editorial Director, Rodale Interactive
- Jonathan Weber, Founder and Editor in Chief, New West
Located in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California, the USC Annenberg School for Communication (www.annenberg.usc.edu) is among the nation’s leading institutions devoted to the study of journalism and communication, and their impact on politics, culture and society. With an enrollment of more than 1,900 graduate and undergraduate students, USC Annenberg offers bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in journalism, communication, public diplomacy and public relations.
The Online News Association (http://www.journalists.org/) is an association composed largely of professional online journalists. The Association has more than 800 professional members whose principal livelihood involves gathering or producing news for digital presentation. The membership includes news writers, producers, designers, editors, photographers and others who produce news for the Internet or other digital delivery systems, as well as academic members and others interested in the development of online journalism.