For Breaking Online News Content, NYTimes Rings True

For using web resources to break the news of Eliot Spitzer's resignation and link to a prostitution ring, The NYTimes.com won the Breaking News award for large sites as part of the Online News Association's Online Journalism Awards Sept. 13 in Washington, D.C.

NYTimes.com created a superb multimedia web package devoted to all-things Spitzer when the story broke in March. It offers an interactive way to expand their coverage of the story and feed readers' need for news. If seeing a video of Spitzer's tear-filled apology isn't enough, an interactive timeline of his life and career highlights-- complete with pictures-- offers readers another glimpse into the former Governor's life.

In addition to linking all relevant stories, the package includes a podcast and link to an in-house bio complete with all archived Times stories relating to Spitzer.

This gives readers a place for one-stop shop coverage, and its easy-to-navigate, reader-friendly site makes the Times worthy of its award.

Las Vegas Sun Shines Online

The Las Vegas Sun’s website, which was the winner of the General Excellence category for medium sites in the 2008 Online Journalism Awards, provides a ton of information in an easy to use format while taking advantage of multimedia potential. When first looking at the page, it is clear that the first priority is news. It has the latest news at the top of the page, followed by prominent stories in other news categories. The front page provides so many things to look at, yet is not overwhelming. It also encourages readers to get involved by providing a “Most read,” “Discussed” and “Most E-mailed” near the top of the main page.

Once you scroll down a bit on the main page, the multimedia aspects of the site shine through. Currently in their “spotlight” section, they have a history of Las Vegas with tons of multimedia options, all of which are interesting and informative. The interactive casino map provides a more interesting look at the strip than just reading about what each casino offers. The “Implosions” section provides some fun (who doesn’t want to see an empty building being blown up) and some history, with a blurb about each of the casinos that are no longer standing.

Off the main page, in addition to the usual Arts and Entertainment, Sports and Opinion sections, the links off the top also include an entire multimedia section. This section includes videos, slide shows, and other multimedia options on everything from sports to a flight delay calculator. There is also a blogs section covering all topics with multiple blogs on each one. Most of the blogs had been updated within the past week, and some had been updated within the last few hours. Overall, the site serves those living there with the latest news as well as those visiting or looking for information with their variety of articles and multimedia sections.

Armytimes.com blasts through the competition

Armytimes.com won in the “general excellence” for a small site category in no small part because of the overall sheen of its site design. The multimedia box located on the right side of the top of the page, for instance, harnesses the Internet’s full capabilities of delivering non-text-based, non-linear news. Without taking up space or being overly bulky, the feature presents five multimedia elements in a creative way. Each item has a tease that, when the cursor moves over a different item, cascades away, imitating the motion of flipping through file folders.

Also noteworthy is the site's feature on the 2008 Paralympics—it takes full advantage of the Internet’s ability to display stories in a non-linear manner. Instead of displaying one long, texty story about which athletes won which events, it displays links to six short profiles of events and people of interest in the Olympics. It also links to an entire page done by militarytimes.com that is bursting with multimedia features on military Olympians. ONA cites its knowledge of its audience as one of Armytimes.com’s assets, and this is very evident: almost all of the articles somehow relate news back to the Army or its soldiers.