Baldy Blogger: 2008 Best Cancer Reporter Award winner

Another accolade for the Huddersfield Express Baldy blogger Adrian Sudbury. He has just been named 2008 Best Cancer Reporter Award winner. Full story...

Tags: Adrian Sudbury

Baldy blogger wins regional journalism prize

Adrian Sudbury, who has blogged about his experiences as a sufferer of terminal leukaemia, was named multimedia journalist of the year in the Press Gazette’s Regional Press Awards on Friday.

Huddersfield Daily Examiner journalist Sudbury accepted the award with a video message, while at the ceremony his parents asked the audience to support his bone marrow donation campaign.

The campaign, which aims to make education about bone marrow, blood and organ donation a compulsory part of sixth-form education in the UK, has already led to a meeting with Gordon Brown for Sudbury.

The Hull Daily Mail was named multimedia publisher of the year and daily newspaper of the year (above 40k) at the awards, and picked up the prize for best front page.

Tags: Adrian Sudbury, Gordon Brown, United Kingdom

NYTimes.com and BBC scoop prizes at Webby awards

The New York Times website won two awards for best news and newspaper at last night’s Webby awards.

BBC News also picked up an accolade for news, while its world service website won an award for radio.

The Financial Times blog Alphaville was also named best business blog.

Winners at the Webbys were asked to make a five-word acceptance speech - the full list of which can be read on the awards website.

Here’s a selection:

“No longer a newspaper site.” (NYTimes.com)

“Me, me, me, me, me!!!” (comedian Stephen Colbert named person of the year)

“Not bad for an aethiest [sic].” (Speaking of Faith, winner in the religion and spirituality category)

Tags: Alphaville, BBC, newspaper site, NYTimes.com, Stephen Colbert, The Financial Times, the New York Times

Grants for New Voices projects and UCLAN lecturer Andy Dickinson

Hot on the heels of last week’s Knight News Challenge winners, two foundations have released details of journalism projects to receive funding.

New Voices - a project from the University of Maryland’s interactive journalism institute - has awarded funding of $17,000 each to 10 citizen media start-ups.

The recipients include: Cool State Online, a Californian project to set up micro bureaux covering news from the Asian and Latino communities; The Appalachian Independent, an online newspaper for the rural community in Maryland; and Family Life Behind Bars, a site where the families of prisoners can share information and experiences.

The progress of the winners (listed in full in a press release) can be viewed on the New Voices website.

Meanwhile, University of Central Lancashire journalism lecturer Andy Dickinson is to receive funding from journalism lab Sandbox for a project mapping the movements of local reporters in their communities.

Reporters from print, radio and TV would be equipped with GPS devices to monitor their movements on a normal working day, explains Dickinson in a blog post.

“The project would then attempt to develop a matrix that visually demonstrated when and where the news agendas of local communities and those of professional media organizations coincide, with a view to examining the range of elements that lead to this juxtaposition.

 

Conducted in this way the research can explore ‘randomness’, and ‘proximity’ to breaking news as a value that impacts news agendas (and says something about reseources too).”

Congratulations to Andy - we’re already looking forward to the results.

Tags: Andy Dickinson, Andy Dickinson Hot, citizen media start-ups, GPS, Maryland, online newspaper, professional media organizations, The Appalachian Independent, University of Central Lancashire, University of Maryland, USD

Webby success for FT.com and BBC News

The Financial Times and the BBC have reason to celebrate after they both won Webby Awards - considered by many as the Oscars of online publishing.

With nominations in over 70 categories FT.com’s Alphaville blog and the BBC News site were amongst a crowded field of winners as they picked up gongs earlier this week.

The Webbys are selected by a group made up of web, business and celebrity figures selected by the awarding body, the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, with the people’s voice awards voted on by web-using members of the public.

Alphaville won the best business blog category, also picking up the people’s voice award in that category.

BBC News was the people’s voice winner in the news category (it also won the main award in the radio category) with the main prize going to NYTimes.com - one of a total of six awards for the publication.

Two of those successes came in the online newspaper section where NYTimes.com won both the main award and the people’s voice award, in the process beating of competition from Guardian.co.uk, Independent.co.uk, the Wall Street Journal Online and Variety.com.

Tags: Alphaville, BBC, FT.com, Guardian.co.uk, Independent.co.uk, International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, online newspaper section, Online publishing, The Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, web-using members

Guardian wins top sports award with multimedia coverage

The Guardian scooped the coveted sports coverage of the year award at last night’s Sports Industry Awards.

Other contenders for the award included the Daily Telegraph, Sunday Times and The Times, with the Guardian chosen for displaying ’synergy between multi-platforms.’

Highlights were said to include online and print coverage of Steve McClaren’s sacking, with rolling news, comment and audio on the web.

Technology such as Hawk Eye graphics used during cricket coverage last summer was also praised.

The award follows the relaunch of the Guardian.co.uk sports section last month as part of the ongoing site revamp.

Tags: coveted sports coverage, Steve McClaren, Sunday Times, the Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, the Guardian.co.uk, The Times

ONA 2008 Awards: new categories reflect developments in online news

The Online News Association has made changes to the 2008 Online Journalism Awards, including the introduction of two new categories.

General Excellence in Online Journalism - Non English and Online Video Presentation have been introduced as award categories in response to the many developments within online news since 2000, when the awards began.

The former applies to non-English sites anywhere in the world to expand the scope of the awards, and the latter rewards excellence in video journalism original to the web.

There is now be a total of 12 awards covering a wide range of categories from niche sites to investigative journalism.

The deadline for all entries is May 31.

Tags: Online Journalism, Online Journalism Awards, online news, Online News Association, Online Video Presentation

Obituary awards go online

The obituary, one of journalism’s more traditional forms, is being celebrated online as part of the Society of Professional Obituary Writers‘ inaugural awards.

All the obituaries nominated for the nine awards have been posted online by the society to be ranked by readers. Though they won’t decide the winners, the readers’ votes will count towards a ‘people’s choice’ title to be announced at the ceremony on May 11.

The full list of nominations for the awards, which include a prize for best multimedia presentation of an obituary or a life story, can be viewed on the society’s website.

Tags: Society of Professional Obituary Writers

Newspaper Awards winners - Timesonline.co.uk named eNews Site of the Year

Timesonline.co.uk was named Electronic News Site of the Year at last night’s Newspaper Awards held at the London Hilton.

The Best Use of New Media prize went to local newspaper Hull Daily Mail’s site thisisyourmail.co.uk.

The Financial Times, fresh from wins at this months British Press Awards, won its third National Newspaper of the Year award of 2008 and the award for National Colour Supplement of the Year for the seventh year running.

The Guardian was highly commended in four out of its five nominated categories, but left without a win.

Tags: Hull Daily Mail, London Hilton, The Financial Times, The Guardian, Timesonline.co.uk, Year Timesonline.co.uk

Press Gazette: FT Alphaville wins digital journalism award

The FT's Alphaville blog has become the first recipient of the Harold Wincott Award for online financial journalism. The annual ceremony recognises the best in financial journalism and inaugurate its prize for online journalism this year. Full story...

Tags: Alphaville, Online Journalism