Just got back from NAA edgies in Orlando. We won two of five categories (for Shopping and Best Advertising Program). The big winners were WashingtonPost.com, AugustaChronicle.com and Curley (Bonita and LJWorld/Lawrence).
Will’s After-The-Fact Note: I should have noted that in July of this year, Curley left LJWorld for the Naples News/Bonita News. Dan Cox has taken over the LJ World team, so congrats is due to both Curley and Cox. I should stop assuming readers know these things. (Thanks for the reminder, David.)
The official winners should be appearing are here on the NAA site (sometime soon).
I kind of feel like we got ripped off. …not for the awards… but for the $125 a plate shocker at Todd English’s Bluezoo restaurant (the home to a little Online News Association dinner after the awards ceremony). But hey, this ain’t no thang for all the execs, consultants and editors expensing their meals, drinks and schmoozing at connections. But what about us simpletons that actually pay for our own food? Or those who care about not wasting their company’s money on overpriced grub?
I’ve discussed my disgust for the expensive conference culture before. The difference between the haves and have-nots makes me want to open a can of beans and start a zine.
Will’s After-The-Fact Note #2 & Quote: Joe Zekas comes out swinging at the NAA award winners:
If you want a simple index of how loopy these people have become, compare the descriptions of their award-winning Web sites with the Web sites themselves. Thanks to PaidContent for bringing the awards to my attention.
The NAA looks, for example, at a strange ghost town named Bakotopia and sees “a vibrant social community.” It looks at a nearly useless new home search in Jacksonville and sees a newspaper “solidifying its crossmedia appeal.” It looks at a prep sports site where 80 percent of the stories have no photos and sees “innovative multimeda storytelling.”
Newspapers have mastered the art of seeing what isn’t there. They need to begin seeing what is.
Go Joe. While I don’t agree with everything he says, the industry needs more people with fire in their bellies like Joe. It should be noted, the ceremony kicked off by saying how few entries there were. In several categories there were no winners and in many categories there wasn’t even enough work to justify naming “finalists” … they just jumped to the winner.
February 20, 2006 at 1:58 pm
You’ll note that Dan Cox is Director of New Media at World Online.
R. Curley hasn’t had anything to do with LJWorld.com or other World Online sites for a while now.
February 20, 2006 at 9:16 pm
Very true, David.
But Curley’s vision and team did shape LJWorld/Lawrence to be what it is today. His finger prints are still all over that site. And technically, he was a part of LJWorld until July 2005 (the awards deadline is in November) so for at least 7 months of 2005, Curley was at the helm.
Congrats to Dan Cox and your team as well!