The NAA awards are open to U.S. newspaper websites, and awards are given in three circulation categories, based on papers’ print circulation. The Lawrence (Kansas) Journal-World, a multiple Edgie Award winner among small-circulation papers, continued its dominance in the awards, winning for best overall newspaper website, innovative storytelling and for best local guide in its circulation categories. E.W. Scripps’ Knoxville (Tennessee) News-Sentinel won among the mid-sized newspapers, also earning Edgies for design and innovative visitor participation.

Poynter’s St. Petersburg Times and Congressional Quarterly won the large-paper award for best overall site for their PolitiFact project, a joint website where Times and CQ reporters fact-check claims made by U.S. presidential candidates.

In addition to announcing the awards, the NAA released a report on the winners, with details and essays from the winning sites. It’s a useful rubric for news site designers looking for inspiration to improve their online publications. Ironically, however, the report is in PDF format, most suitable for, well, printing.

Here are this year’s Edgie winners, in the editorial categories:

Best Overall Newspaper Website
LJWorld.com, The Lawrence Journal-World/The World Co. (circ. < 75,000)
Knoxnews.com, Knoxville News Sentinel (circ. 75,000 – 250,000)
PolitiFact.com, St. Petersburg Times and Congressional Quarterly (circ. > 250,000)

Best Design and Site Architecture
PrepZone.com, Naples Daily News (circ. < 75,000)
Knoxnews.com, Knoxville News Sentinel (circ. 75,000 – 250,000)
washingtonpost.com, Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive (circ. < 250,000)

Most Innovative Multimedia Storytelling
24 Hours in Lawrence Lawrence Journal-World/The World Co. (circ. < 75,000)
BrokenTrust, Sarasota Herald-Tribune (circ. 75,000 – 250,000)
A People Torn, Minneapolis Star Tribune (circ. > 250,000)

Most Innovative Use of Interactive Media
PigskinReview.com, Amarillo Globe-News (circ. < 75,000)
Ultimate Local Band Site and Text Voting Contest, tbt* Tampa Bay Times (circ. 75,000 – 250,000)
The Issues Tracker and HD Video Podcasts, washingtonpost.com (circ. > 250,000)

Most Innovative Visitor Participation
Creating a Two-Way Conversation with Our Community, Savannahnow.com/Savannah Morning News (circ. < 75,000)
School Matters Knoxnews.com/Knoxville News Sentinel (circ. 75,000 – 250,000)
cincyMOMS.com, Cincinnati Enquirer (circ. > 250,000)

Best Local Guide or Entertainment Site
Lawrence.com, The World Co. (circ. < 75,000)
Austin360.com, Austin American-Stateman (circ. 75,000 – 250,000)
Vita.mn, Minneapolis Star Tribune (circ. > 250,000)

But which award, if any, matter most to you? Whether you work for an online newspaper, publish a solo blog or manage a discussion forum, we’d like to hear your thoughts about the credibility — and desirability — of several major online news awards.

So cast your vote below, and please leave a thought or two in the comments. (And if you are good, or lucky, enough to have won more than one of these awards, please vote on which one meant the most to you.)

This year’s general excellence winners were USA Today (large), The Denver Post (medium) and the Ventura County Star (small).

Other winners:
Outstanding Use of Digital Media, small: Wisconsin State Journal, Hip Hop 101
Outstanding Use of Digital Media, large: Discovery Channel, Everest Beyond the Limit
Beat reporting, small: Florida Today, Space Beat
Beat reporting, large: Wired.com
Breaking News, small: The Roanoke Times
Breaking News, large: Associated Press
Investigative journalism, large: ABC News, Brian Ross Investigates: “The Mark Foley Investigation”
Investigative Journalism, small: Center for Investigative Reporting, Danger On Your Plate
Service journalism, large: Toronto Star
Specialty Journalism, large: Livescience.com
Specialty Journalism, small: Council on Foreign Relations
Commentary, small: Wild Bill, NewWest.net
Commentary, medium: Walt Handelsman, Newsday
Commentary, large: William Saletan, Slate
Student Journalism: Border Beat (University of Arizona) and Our Tahoe (University of Nevada, Reno) [tie]

Next year’s Online News Association annual conference will be held in Washington, D.C.

That’s why judging the final round of the SND.ies awards, the Society for News Design’s Best of Multimedia Design Competition, can be an educational experience. This year, nine judges gathered in late August at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill for an intense two days of reviewing, discussing, and evaluating a wide variety of entries. Something unique about the SND.ies is the lack of a requirement that the judges designate a gold, silver or bronze winner in each category. There may, in fact, be no entries that make it to gold status, or silver, or any award level. It makes the discussion of each entry focused much more on its individual merits rather than comparing it with others in the category.

As a judge (Nora Paul) and the competition coordinator (Laura Ruel) we observed some distinct trends in multimedia design. Without revealing the winners (they will be announced on Oct. 13 at the SND awards banquet in Boston) we’d like to discuss the types of entries that we saw, the elevation in the quality of entries during the past few years, and the kinds of usability questions that this next level of multimedia seem to raise.

Five types of entries

First of all, we want to say how impressed we are with the variety of ways journalists are using multimedia forms to tell stories. This year, we observed five distinct types of entries:

The Washington Post led all finalists with four nominations. The New York Times, Denver Post and the Washington Post Co.’s Slate won three nominations each. Two nominations went to the Center for Public Integrity, ESPN, the Miami Herald, New West, Newsday, Orlando Sentinel, Roanoke.com and the Toronto Star.

A panel of judges selected the finalists during a two-day retreat at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication (publisher of OJR). This year’s judges were:

Idea #1: Sex! Also, cover the future, not just the past and present

Any idiot can write stories about events that have already happened, and even the dumbest, most makeup-wearing TV reporter can bring you “live, on the scene” coverage of events that are happening right now, but only visionaries and psychics can bring you news of events that haven’t happened yet and that, indeed, may never happen at all.

(The contest ad said, “Think big. Think radical.” So I am!)

We all know that the average age of Americans is going up. And recent studies have shown that Americans no longer give up sex once they turn 30. So we already know that one of the hottest job fields in coming years is going to be Geriatric Sex Counseling.

Armed with this knowledge, a smart newspaper will want to have at least two or three certified gerontological orgasmentarianists on staff by the end of this year, in anticipation of this employment trend, instead of waiting for it to happen. Some of the more forward-looking newspapers will probably have entire sections devoted to orgasmentarianism before long, complete with online video instructions in full color made both by staff professionals and volunteer readers with their webcams and camcorders.

A few sticks-in-the mud will no doubt say this is nothing but a way to sell sex. What’s the matter with these people? Haven’t they been watching TV lately? Especially cable? I swear, the tube is full of sex, sex, sex, all the time. Newspapers have fallen behind and need to catch up. Pitching their prurience toward older folks, and cloaking it (and uncloaking it once you click the “I am over 18″ box on the Web site) in educational robes, will allow newspaper publishers to claim they are taking the high road instead of catering to the Lower Classes like that boorish Murdoch person and his soon-to-be-launched weekly “Bare Banking Babes” feature in his latest acquisition, the Wall Street Journal.

Note that what I have done here, in this very article, is write about events that have not yet happened. This is proof that it can be done. And if I — a former cab driver, soldier, electronics technican, and limousine owner — can do it, people with enough degrees to work for modern newspaper chains ought to be able to do it even better.

So go forth, newspaper futurists, and tell us tales not only of what is, but of what will (or at least might) be. We will be waiting to read your words of wisdom with bated breath (or possibly baited breath, if we rely on spellcheckers more than we really should).

Idea #2: Decentralized, customized newspaper printing

This one is simple, and really should be happening already. Imagine small printing units near subscribers homes or even mounted in trucks instead of huge, centralized printing plants. Also imagine newspaper vending boxes that carry paper stock and a two-sided printing head instead of pre-printed newspapers.

Voila! Print-on-demand newspapers. No returns. No waste.

Even better, any reader who thinks Mallard Fillmore is the only funny comic, and complains that all MSM writers and editors (except maybe the ones at Faux News) are libral soshulists, can now have a newspaper exactly to his taste.

I’m presenting this idea in a light-hearted way, but it is not a laughing matter. A truck-mounted, GPS-equipped, computer-controlled newspaper delivery “robot” that printed each subscriber’s newspaper as an individual piece would not be hard to build. It will still need a human driver until motor vehicle laws are changed to allow fully-automated vehicles, and it might be more practical to have small, fixed-base printing units spread throughout a newspaper’s circulation area than to make mobile ones, but the result would still be huge savings in transportation, paper stock and printing waste — and the ability to produce an individually-customized print product would be… dare we say it?… priceless.

Idea #3: Drugs + Rock ‘n Roll = Profit

I have a total of seven prescriptions, five of which are for drugs I take daily to control my Type 2 Diabetes and high blood pressure. The other two are semi-optional pain relief and mood alteration meds that help me cope with neuropathy and the stress of nicotine withdrawal I am currently enduring due to my recent decision to stop smoking after nearly 40 years of cigarette use.

I can get all kinds of dry, physician-type information about these drugs with a few search engine clicks. But if I want to know how they’ll make me feel…. nada.

Newspapers run movie reviews, book reviews, concert reviews, and theater reviews. I often rely on The Washington Post’s Stephen Hunter for movie-watching decisions. I don’t always follow his recommendations. But after reading his reviews for many years, I know his tastes well enough to know which movies he likes that I will like, too, and — just as important — which ones he doesn’t like that I will.

Why don’t newspapers review drugs the same way they review books and movies? It might be a little hard to have one reviewer test everything from Xanax to chemotherapy treatments, so this is a perfect place for community interaction. My wife, a mild hypochondriac, is not much of a newspaper reader, but if our local paper started running pharmaceutical reviews I’ll bet she’d check that page religiously. She might even contribute to it. So would many of her friends. Wow! A whole new newspaper audience niche! And a whole new set of advertising sales opportunities, too, since the pharma companies would be all over this in a heartbeat.

Add reviews of local doctors, hospitals, clinics, chiropractors, faith healers, and other health care providers, and you’ll have a whole daily section so full of high-value ads that newspaper company shareholders will weep with joy.

Then add free music downloads from local rock bands — and hip hop and grunt rock and reggae and classical and jazz and other kinds of groups and performers — and there would be yet another new audience segment a forward-looking newspaper could glom on to. The Washington Post has an online area where local musicians can upload their work and readers can download it for free, but it doesn’t seem to have been updated since September, 2006. It was a very cool thing that was way ahead of its time when I first saw it in 2002.

Now, of course, local radio has been all but merged out of existence, leaving only Murky Channel-type junk in most media markets, which means newspapers have a golden opportunity to become the primary source of new local music for the local masses. Many papers already sponsor local musical events. This is just a more sophsticated way to do it. In fact, musc downloads could help publicize concerts, and concerts could tout the download service. Synergy to the max!

The 2017 Prototype Newspaper of the Future Contest

In the year 2017, if newspapers are still alive, they’ll be robot-delivered, custom-printed, and Web based. And they will face competition and challenges we can’t even imagine today.

Well, maybe we can imagine some of those challenges…

• Implanted RFIDs with direct neural conductivity will be all the rage. Tomorrow’s digerati will sneer at old fogies (who are today’s young hotshots) and say, “You mean you still get your news from the Internet? On a computer? Eww!”
• With direct neural connections, Smell-O-Vision will finally become reality. So will Feel-O-Vision. Instead of just watching a football game, you’ll be hooked directly to the players’ own nervous systems. You’ll be right there in the huddle, smelling the Quarterback’s sweat. And when the player you’re hooked to gets tackled, “I feel your pain” will no longer be something funny the first President Clinton once said. Instead, you’ll feel pain so real that you’ll be curled up on the floor, sobbing, as you clutch your broken ankle.
• Porn is going to be amazing in the world of Feel-O-Vision. Teledildonics will be one of America’s hottest growth industries. Progressive newspapers will start hiring porn reviewers. But they will no longer have book reviewers because hardly anyone will still read anything except tech manuals — and by 2017 most tech manuals will be videos on disc, produced in Vietnam or Alabama (India will be way too expensive by then), not old-style paper books.
• It will be no problem outsourcing virtually all reporting to lower-cost countries because we’ll have security cameras everywhere so remote reporters can see everything. (They’ll use remote-controlled reporter robots to cover places where there are no permanently-mounted cameras).
• At some point, there will be a scandal over “altered” feelings in a Feel-O-Vision newscast. The Online News Association will hold many roundtable discussions about the ethics of modifying FeelFeeds (which is what I think we’ll call direct neurological hookups) and whether audiences should be linked to soldiers as they die in the Endless War that will still be going on in Iraq.

The one bright spot in all this is that beginning journalists will no longer need to send resumes to thousands of newspapers, TV stations, and FeelFeed outlets in order to break into the field. There will only be one news company, and an artificial intelligence based on the (by then) late Rupert Murdoch’s brain will control it. Journalists will either work for this company or will be forced to find another line of work, which will make life simpler and easier for almost everyone.

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Copyright 2017 by the Online Journalism and FeelFeed Review, published by the USC Murdoch School of Journalism. All rights are held by the Murdoch School of Journalism. No one — not even the author — may reprint, retransmit, FeelFeed, quote or even discuss this article without express permission from the copyright holder.

The Online Journalism Awards will be presented on October 7, during the ONA’s annual national conference, which will be held this year at the Capital Hilton in Washington, DC. The awards are administered by the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communication, which also publishes OJR.

An OJR analysis of the offline media affiliations of the finalists in the non-student categories shows that newspaper dot-coms led the way, earning 38 finalist honors for 27 sites, including that of the Associated Press. Magazine-published websites earned eight finalist awards. Cable television networks earned five honors, while over-the air networks earned three and one local television station (Indianapolis’s WTHR) earned a finalist nod.

Ten websites not affiliated with an offline media partner earned 12 finalist honors, though that number includes Slate, which is now owned by the Washington Post, and The Smoking Gun, which is owned by the cable TV network Court TV. [Editor's note -- Numbers corrected to note that Gulf Coast News is not affiliated with a newspaper.]

Finalists in each category are listed below, along with the finalist’s offline media affiliation. The designation between “large” and “small” websites is determined by the individual domain’s monthly visitors, and does not reflect the size of the news organization behind the site.

General Excellence in Online Journalism (Large)

MSNBC (cable network)
The New York Times (newspaper)
Star Tribune (newspaper)
USA Today (newspaper)
Washington Post.com (newspaper)

General Excellence in Online Journalism (Medium)

New West (not affiliated)
Orlando Sentinel (newspaper)
Roanoke.com (newspaper)
Spokesman Review (newspaper)

General Excellence in Online Journalism (Small)

The Center for Public Integrity (not affiliated)
Congressional Quarterly (magazine)
LJWorld.com (newspaper)
Speaking of Faith (broadcast network)

Breaking News (Large)

“London Terrorist Bombings”, CNN (cable network)
“NYC Transit Strike,” New York Times (newspaper)
“Hurricane Katrina,” NOLA.com (newspaper)
“Hurricane Wilma,” Sun Sentinel (newspaper)
“Hurricane Katrina,” USA Today (newspaper)

Breaking News (Small)

“The 404 Debate,” CFO.com (magazine)
“Hurricane Katrina,” Sun Herald (newspaper)

Online Commentary (Large)

“The Drive-In with James Hill,” BET (cable network)
“BorgBlog,” Jim Borgman, Cincinnati.com (newspaper)
“David Pogue on NYTimes.com,” New York Times (newspaper)
“Architecture,” Slate Magazine (not affiliated, though owned by a newspaper company)
“Moneybox,” Slate Magazine (not affiliated, though owned by a newspaper company)

Online Commentary (Medium)

“Stuck in the 80s,” TampaBay.com (newspaper)
“Stacy Haddox,” TheDay.com (newspaper)
“Survivor: Treasure Coast Blogfest,” TCPalm.com (newspaper)

Online Commentary (Small)

CJR Daily (magazine)
“Get on the Bus,” Scott Elliot (newspaper)
“Good Morning Silicon Valley,” John Paczkowski (newspaper)
SeeingBlack.com (not affiliated)

Outstanding Use of Multiple Media (Large)

“London Attacks,” BBC News (broadcast network)
“Hurricane Katrina,” MSNBC.com (cable network)
“Going Down the Crooked Road,” Roanoke.com (newspaper)
“2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy,” USA Today (newspaper)

Outstanding Use of Multiple Media (Small)

“An Enduring Mystery,” Herald Tribune (newspaper)
“Montgomery Boycott,” Montgomery Advertiser (newspaper)
“Tallahassee Bus Boycott Anniversary,” Tallahassee Democrat (newspaper)

Specialty Journalism (Large)

Business Week (magazine)
“Taking back the Web: New generation, technologies return Net to social roots,” CNET News.com (not affiliated)
“ESPN Insider,” ESPN (cable network)
NOVA Science NOW (broadcast network)

Specialty (Small)

Bicycling (magazine)
“Azerbaijan Elections 2005,” EurasiaNet.org (not affiliated)
Fine Woodworking (magazine)
Lawrence.com (newspaper)
McKinneySports.net (not affiliated)

Service Journalism (Large)

“The Mercury Menace,” Chicago Tribune (newspaper)
“Identity Crisis: Myth vs. Reality in ID Theft,” CNET News.com (not affiliated)
“Walk This Way Challenge,” Prevention (magazine)
“License to Harm,” Seattle Times (newspaper)
“Couples and Their Cash,” USA Today (newspaper)

Service Journalism (Small)

“Quality Counts at 10: A Decade of Standards Based Education,” Education Week (magazine)
“Toxic Legacy,” The Bergen Record (newspaper)
Gulf Coast News (not affiliated)

Enterprise Journalism (Large)

“A Million Little Lies,” The Smoking Gun (not affiliated, though owned by a cable network)
“e-Qaeda,” Washington Post (newspaper)
“9/11 Loans,” Associated Press (newspaper)

Enterprise (Small)

“Cause for Alarm,” WTHR 13 Eyewitness News (local TV)
“Conflicts on the Bench,” Muckracker.Org (not affiliated)
“Power Trips,“ The Center for Public Integrity (not affiliated)
“Toxic Cargo,” Press Enterprise (newspaper)

Knight Foundation Award for Public Service

“Hurricane Katrina: The Storm We Always Feared,” NOLA.com (newspaper)
“Toxic Legacy,” The Record (newspaper)
“Fire Alarm,” Newsday (newspaper)
“Mortgage Fraud: The new street hustle,” Chicago Tribune (newspaper)
“Hurricane Katrina,” Sun Herald (newspaper)

Student Journalism

“Chasing Crusoe,” University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the Universidad de Los Andes, Facultad de Comunicación
“My Blue Eyed Girl,” Heather Gehlert, School of Journalism, University of Berkeley
“Peavine Explorations,” Reynolds School of Journalism
“Rezoned,” Jeff DelViscio and Khody Akhavi, Columbia School of Journalism
“The Ancient Way,” School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina, the Department of Journalism at the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain) and the Faculty of Communication at the Universidad de los Andes (Chile)

The judges for the 2006 awards were: