ONA: Online Journalism Awards finalists announced

The list of finalists for the 2012 Online Journalism Awards has been announced. Winners revealed and honoured at the Online News Association (ONA) conference next month.

Finalists include Homicide Watch DC, with a one-person reporting team, to larger outlets, including the New York Times, CNN and the Los Angeles Times.

The Guardian is a finalist in the 'explanatory reporting' category for large news outlets for Gay Rights, State by State (and Beyond), which is by the Guardian in America interactive team.

Storify and NewsCred are both finalists in the award for 'technical innovation in the service of digital journalism'. The full list of finalists is at this link.

According to an announcement post by the Online News Association, the finalists include "many pushing the envelope of innovation and excellence in digital storytelling and distribution".

There are eight awards with a total of $33,000 in prize money provided by the Knight Foundation, and two $2,500 awards supporting "innovative investigative work" with money from the Gannett Foundation.

The winners will be announced at the 2012 ONA conference and Online Journalism Awards banquet on 22 September in San Francisco.

"This year, ONA introduced category changes to ensure the awards maintain their innovative front edge by breaking out content by topic; categorising entries by staff size rather than audience metrics, and assuming the use of the latest digital platforms and technologies," according to the post.

Co-chairs of the Online Journalism Awards committee Josh Hatch, an ONA board member, and Ruth Gersh, director of global product operations at Associated Press, said in a joint statement: “Once again, we were overwhelmed with the quality of work submitted.

"The use of multimedia, the power of data and social media, and the ability of journalists to integrate them to inform, entertain, and emotionally connect with readers has set a high water mark.”

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