BBC News

BBC News beat of competition from the New York Times, the Washington Post and Al-Jazeera English to the general excellence in online journalism award for a large site


BBC News scooped one of the top prizes at the Online Journalism Awards at the weekend, taking home general excellence in online journalism for a large site.

The site beat competition in the category from the New York Times, the Washington Post and Al-Jazeera English.

Judges said on Twitter that BBC News' online operation was a "standard bearer, pushing the whole field forward" and "strong in leveraging tech for journalism".

BBC News editor Steve Herrmann said: "The award is brilliant news - it comes in the year following a major revamp of the news site, including a complete redesign. It's also been a year of huge news stories and we have been able to be increasingly effective at showcasing all the BBC's newsgathering potential and expertise on the site.

"We also launched our North America edition a year ago, and have just announced a further investment in Washington, to run an international edition of our popular Magazine section, with the backing of BBC Worldwide, the BBC's commercial arm, which funds our services internationally."

Other winners included Al Jazeera, which won the breaking news category for its coverage of the uprising in Egypt.

According to the Qatar-based network, the coverage led to a 2500 per cent increase in traffic to its site. Judges praised Al Jazeera's approach for being "informed by people affected by what was happening".

Mohamed Nanabhay, head of online at Al Jazeera English, said the broadcaster had seen one of the "most intense news cycles on modern times".

"Not much can compare to being an active part of such a tumultuous period of history, however acknowledgement from your professional peers is something to savour," he added.

Paris-based site OWNI won the award for general excellence in online journalism for a small, non-English site for the second year in a row and Arianna Huffington, whose Huffington Post recently launched in the UK, won the award for online commentary/blogging for a large site.

This year's awards saw changes to acknowledge new digital platforms, with entries for all awards open to news produced for any digital device.

Anthony Moor, chair of the Online Journalism Association, said: "What’s most gratifying is to see the proliferation of quality work from next-generation digital journalists.

"While there is justifiable concern about the fate of numerous long-established newsrooms, there’s a healthy amount of excellent work coming from a new class of publications that don’t rely on broadcast or print to inform the public."

The awards were launched in 2000 and are organised by the Online News Association, in partnership with the University of Miami’s School of Communication. Prize money is sponsored by the Gannett Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

BBC News editor Steve Hermann will be speaking about the corporations approach to online journalism at Journalism.co.uk's upcoming news:rewired conference. See the full agenda at this link.

The full list of winners:

Knight Award for Public Service: Barnegat Bay Under Stress – Asbury Park Press

General Excellence in Online Journalism, Large Site: BBC News

General Excellence in Online Journalism, Medium Site: The Globe and Mail

General Excellence in Online Journalism, Small Site: voiceofsandiego.org – Voice of San Diego

General Excellence in Online Journalism, Micro Site: NJ Spotlight

General Excellence in Online Journalism, Non-English, Small Site: OWNI

General Excellence in Online Journalism, Non-English, Large Site: LA NACION

Breaking News, Large Site: Coverage of the uprisings in Egypt – Al Jazeera

Breaking News, Small Site: A Snow Storm Hits New York and WNYC Listeners Map the Cleanup – WNYC Radio

Specialty Site Journalism, Affiliated: NPR Music – NPR (Tie) / Pipeline – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/post-gazette.com (Tie)

Specialty Site Journalism, Independent: edweek.org – Education Week, Editorial Projects in Education

Gannett Foundation Award for Innovative Investigative Journalism, Large Site: Breach of Faith – Los Angeles Times

Gannett Foundation Award for Innovative Investigative Journalism, Small Site:
Dialysis – ProPublica

Multimedia Feature Presentation, Large Site: Traumatic Brain Injury: Coming home a different person – The Washington Post

Multimedia Feature Presentation, Medium Site: Exile Without End: Palestinians in Lebanon – CBC News, Radio-Canada, ALT Digital Design Studio

Multimedia Feature Presentation, Small Site: Crisis Guide: Pakistan – Council on Foreign Relations / MediaStorm

Multimedia Feature Presentation, Student Site: Global Warning – Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University

Online Topical Reporting/Blogging, Large Site: CNN Belief Blog – CNN Digital

Online Topical Reporting/Blogging, Medium Site: Ward Room – NBCChicago.com

Online Topical Reporting/Blogging, Small Site: OpenSecrets.org

Online Commentary/Blogging, Large Site: Arianna Huffington – The Huffington Post

Online Commentary/Blogging, Medium Site: No award

Online Commentary/Blogging, Small: No award

Outstanding Informational Graphic or Data Visualization, Professional: Tell-All Telephone – Zeit Online

Outstanding Informational Graphic or Data Visualization, Student: No award

Online Video Journalism, Large Site: Caught in the Crossfire: Victims of Gang Violence – Los Angeles Times

Online Video Journalism, Medium Site: Exile Without End: Palestinians in Lebanon – CBC News, Radio-Canada, ALT Digital Design Studio

Online Video Journalism, Small Site: Powering a Nation: Spilling Over – UNC News21

Online Video Journalism, Student: Haiti’s Lost Children – University of Miami (Tie) / Now What Argentina? – University of North Carolina & Universidad Pontifica de Argentina (Tie)

Community Collaboration: The Tiziano Project | 360 Kurdistan

The Gannett Foundation Award for Technical Innovation in the Service of Journalism: Flipboard
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