Pilot Online, HamptonRoads.com win Best News Site award

Pilot Online

DALLAS - PilotOnline.com and HamptonRoads.com were named Best Overall News Site for mid-sized U.S. cities in the Newspaper Association of America's 2005 Digital Edge online awards. This is the sixth "Edgie" award the sites have won in the past five years.

CareerConnection, the employment service found at jobs.hamptonroads.com, was also honored as one of three finalists for Best Employment Site.

Judges praised the online staff, the Virginian-Pilot newsroom and the Hampton Roads community for building an effective online service: "Energized by a mandate to provide immediate, continuous news, The Virginian-Pilot's Web sites serve the community with smartly organized and deeply informative coverage. The sites do much more than issue rapidly updated news reports; they interact with readers who contribute photos, one-the-scene reporting and opinions."

The importance of providing a wide variety of news was emphasized in the sites' nomination. PilotOnline.com emphasizes breaking news and continuous updates from local and national sources, while HamptonRoads.com mixes select headlines with a broader range of entertainment and community information. The complete newspaper experience is captured online through ePilot a digital replica of each day's paper, and e-mail alerts keep viewers informed in a convenient and timely way.

PilotOnline.com won the top news honor over two other finalists in the mid-sized market category: NewsObserver.com in Raleigh, N.C., and VenturaCountyStar.com in Ventura County, Calif.

The Best Overall News Site in the large-market category was The New York Times' nytimes.com, and top honors in the small-market category went to ljworld.com in Lawrence, Kan.

CareerConnection was one of three finalists for Best Employment Site; the Jobs Today section of reviewjournal.com in Las Vegas took the top honor.

PilotOnline.com this year also won first place for print-online convergence in its class in the Virginia Press Association awards. The honor was for "Whales: a ton of mystery stranded on the beach," the online supplement to The Virginian-Pilot's Secrets of the Dead series.

Previous years' Digital Edge honors include:

» In 2004, HamptonRoads.com's Fun and Entertainment channel was named Best Entertainment Site, and the Hampton Roads Guestbook was name Most Innovative for Visitor Participation. The sites also were finalists for Best News Site and Best Advertising Program.

» In 2002, Pilot Online won Best News Presentation, and HamptonRoads.com was a finalist for Best Local Site.

» In 2001, HamptonRoads.com won Best Local City Guide, and Pilot Online won a Most Innovative award for coverage of the USS Wisconsin exhibit in Norfolk.

Launched in 1993, Pilot Online and HamptonRoads.com are the region's most-visited local Web sites, with 51 percent of local Internet users visiting each month.

The "Edgie" awards have honored Internet innovation for 10 years. This year, 33 industry-expert judges selected winners from more than 200 entries in eight categories.