The finalists for an Online Journalism Award have been announced, and beyond the usual characters, there are a few journalism startups in the running, among them: VoiceofSanDiego.org (three categories), ProPublica (three), TexasTribune.org (two) and one of our personal favorites, WestSeattleBlog.com, a popular neighborhood news site that’s a finalist in the community collaboration category.
“Everyone who’s part of West Seattle Blog – as a reader, commenter, tipster, writer, photo-sharer, Forums member, sponsor, events-calendar-item-sender, ANYTHING – is a finalist for a national award!” writes editor Tracy Record on the site today. By the way, West Seattle Blog has a HUGE social media following: nearly 8,000 on Twitter and another 5,000+ on Facebook. It’s also interesting to point out that of the four startup finalists mentioned above, only the West Seattle Blog is a for-profit venture (and it is profitable.)
On the social media front, the Associated Press is a finalist for a Technical Innovation award with its multiplatform style guide, which includes a popular Twitter account (not to be confused with the other one). CNN is also up for the same award for its work with its iPhone app, which integrates submissions to CNN iReport.
“We were struck this year by the increase in the quality and quantity of strong investigative work,” said Anthony Moor, Lead Local Editor at Yahoo!, who, along with AP’s Ruth Gersh, co-chairs the Online Journalism Awards Committee. “As digital news comes of age, journalists are finding inventive ways to honor the core values of their craft.”
Finalists for the large site overall excellence award include msnbc.com (where I work), NPR.org, NYMag.com and NYTimes.com.
It’s certainly worth carving out some time to visit the links on the finalists page — some great work in there. Congrats and good luck everyone!
