Journal-World wins two Eppy awards

Posted October 31, 2012

The Lawrence Journal-World on Tuesday won two top awards for online excellence.

The international EPpy Awards, presented by Editor & Publisher, honor the best media-affiliated websites.

The Journal-World’s website, LJWorld.com, won the EPpy for the Best Daily Newspaper Website with under 1 million unique monthly visitors. Other news organizations nominated in the category included the South Bend (Ind.) Tribune, the Glendale (Ariz.) News-Press and the Fort Wayne (Ind.) News-Sentinel.

Multimedia work by Journal-World photojournalists — Richard Gwin, Nick Krug and Mike Yoder — was honored for a second year in a row, winning in the Best News Video with under 1 million unique monthly visitors category. Other nominees included Wired magazine, the Salt Lake Tribune, Deseret News and Naples Daily News.

The Journal-World was a finalist in four other categories:

• KUSports.com for Best Sports Website with under 1 million unique monthly visitors.

• Wellcommons, which focuses on northeast Kansas health issues, for Best Community Service on a Media-Affiliated Website with under 1 million unique monthly visitors. Wellcommons was a winner last year.

• A package of stories, photos and videos about Joe Jones, who was the first Kansan exonerated for a rape through DNA evidence. The work was by reporter Shaun Hittle and photojournalists Nick Krug and Kevin Anderson.

• Town Talk, reporter Chad Lawhorn’s blog, for Best Business Blog with under 1 million unique monthly visitors.

Now in their 17th year, the EPpy Awards were established by Editor & Publisher to recognize the best work in online journalism. Last year, the Journal-World won three awards in categories for small media organizations, including best community service website and best sports video.