The event, which has attracted entries from some of the world's leading websites including The Huffington Post, The Guardian, The Times, BBC, Sunday Times, Mail Online, Reuters and Wall Street Journal, to name a few, is sponsored by the Press Association, Society of Editors, NUJ, Holdthefrontpage.co.uk and IE School of Communication.
It was Judged by a 20 strong international panel including; Noel Young, Owner of ReportBoston.com and Chairman of the Judging Panel, Ed Bell, ex-bureau chief, Associated Press, Mark Coyle, editor, BBC London 2012, Nick Blunden, digital publisher, The Economist, Nick Wrenn, VP digital, CNN International, Maria Eftimiades, ex-bureau chief, People magazine, David Mill, managing director, MediaCo, Bill Hagerty, editor, British Review Journal, Jim Chisholm, director, Scottish Newspaper Society.
Named as Website of the Year was The Guardian for not losing its news sense and judgment just because the distribution of the stories is digital the judges said. It gets the right balance between serious news and lighter features and sports and it is so easy to navigate. Online, it still looks and feels and walks and talks like a newspaper and the online site is just as attractive as the print edition. In all The Guardian took home 5 awards.
The Chairman’s Award, chosen by Noel Young of ReportBoston.com, went to MailOnline to recognise its success in terms of increasing its monthly users and global reach. The Mail Online has under Martin Clarke become the world's biggest newspaper website with 90, 309,252 monthly unique browsers in April. This is up 41.65 percent on the previous year.
The Sunday Times, The Times and The BBC all won two awards but it wasn’t only big companies that were recognised. Red Online won best designed site, The Arts Desk won Best Specialist Site for Journalism and Belfast Telegraph won the new category Best Local/Regional News Site
Winning the Online Editor of the Year category was Carla Buzasi Editor-in-chief and The Huffington Post UK for successfully launching into the UK and bringing the bold direct magazine presentation to the news site and making a big splash in a terribly competitive market.
Online Media Awards Founder Gordon Young explains "Now in their second year the, Online Media Awards have very quickly become established among the world’s top online media owners and editors as an important benchmark for the work that they are doing to build strong online brands. This year’s awards attracted many major national and international media brands all of whom are really pushing the boundaries of online journalism. What is also encouraging to see is that not only the major media brands are winning these awards, but smaller brands are also proving that when it comes to great online journalism it is not always who has the deepest pockets that wins.”
He added: “I’m delighted to see The Guardian getting the recognition that is deserves as it has been a pioneer for online news for many years and continues to strike the right balance between news, features and sports coverage. The MailOnline is also a formidable online presence, so to see it winning the Chairman’s Award is a well deserved accolade. Congratulations to all our winners and The Drum is keen to see how they continue to develop their online services in the year ahead.”
Online Media Awards 2012 - Winners
Website of the Year
The Guardian
Chairman’s Award
Mail Online
Best Brand Development
AWARD
Emap
For Student Nursing Times
COMMENDATION
The Times
Best Campaigning / Investigative Journalism
AWARD
The Sunday Times
COMMENDATION
The Times
COMMENDATION
Exaro News
Best Commentary/Blogging
AWARD
Channel 4 News
For FactCheck
COMMENDATION
New Statesman
Best Commercial Innovation
AWARD
Mindful Money
COMMENDATION
The Times
Best Designed site
AWARD
Red Online
COMMENDATION
The Sunday Times
COMMENDATION
Thomson Reuters Foundation
For AlertNet - The World's Humanitarian News Site
Best Local/Regional News Site
AWARD
belfasttelegraph.co.uk
COMMENDATION
lancashiretelegraph.co.uk
COMMENDATION
walesonline.co.uk
COMMENDATION
Bristol24-7
Best National News Site
AWARD
The Guardian
COMMENDATION
The Times
COMMENDATION
The Sunday Times
Best Site for news-led Journalism
AWARD
BBC News website
COMMENDATION
New York Times
COMMENDATION
Telegraph
Best Specialist Site for Journalism
AWARD
The Economist
AWARD
theartsdesk.com
COMMENDATION
Financial Times
COMMENDATION
Nature News and comment
COMMENDATION
Guardian Datastore
Best Technical Innovation
AWARD
The Guardian
For iPad edition
COMMENDATION
Financial Times
For FT web app
Best Twitter feed
AWARD
The Guardian
For Paul Lewis @paullewis
COMMENDATION
Yahoo!
For @YahooOmgUK
COMMENDATION
BBC News
For @BBCBreaking
COMMENDATION
Nature Publishing Group
For @NatureNews
Best Use of Crowd Sourcing or Citizen Journalism
AWARD
The Times
For The Times' Cities Fit for Cycling
COMMENDATION
BBC News website
For BBC UGC hub for Syria protests
Best use of Photography
AWARD
The Sunday Times
COMMENDATION
The Times
Best Use of Social Media
AWARD
The Guardian
COMMENDATION
Metro
COMMENDATION
South Wales Argus
Best Video Journalism
AWARD
BBC News
COMMENDATION
Thomson Reuters Foundation
Digital Writer of the Year
AWARD
Murad Ahmed
The Times
COMMENDATION
Andrew Pugh
Press Gazette
Online Editor of the Year
AWARD
Carla Buzasi
Editor-in-chief
The Huffington Post UK
COMMENDATION
Tom Whitwell
Editorial Director
Times Digital
