Las Vegas Sun, Weekly websites win elite online journalism awards

Image

Leila Navidi

Arturo Martinez-Sanchez walks with his two sons, from left, Alejandro, 5, and Cristopher, 9, during a press conference at his gym, Real KO Boxing Club, in North Las Vegas July 12, 2012. Martinez-Sanchez’s wife and 10-year-old daughter were beaten to death in their home in April 2012; Martinez-Sanchez was hospitalized with severe head injuries from the attack.

Wed, Oct 30, 2013 (1:04 p.m.)

Jackie Valley

Jackie Valley

Leila Navidi

Leila Navidi

Grace Through Grief: Chapter 2

Arturo Martinez-Sanchez is seen at his gym, Real KO Boxing Club, in North Las Vegas July 6, 2012. Martinez-Sanchez's wife and 10-year-old daughter were beaten to death in their home in April 2012; Martinez-Sanchez was hospitalized with severe head injuries from the attack. Launch slideshow »

The websites of the Las Vegas Sun and Las Vegas Weekly were recognized Wednesday for excellence in online journalism by industry trade journal Editor & Publisher.

Lasvegassun.com won two first-place honors in the prestigious EPPY Awards for “Grace Through Grief.” The intimate, seven-part series followed a father and his two young sons’ physical and emotional recovery over the course of a year after the man’s wife and daughter were killed and he was gravely injured in a home invasion.

The series was named best news or event feature on a website with more than 1 million unique monthly visitors, tying with the Boston Globe’s collection of content stemming from the Boston Marathon bombing.

The project also was honored for best use of photography on a website with more than 1 million monthly visitors.

The primary creators of the project were reporter Jackie Valley and photographer Leila Navidi.

The relaunch of lasvegasweekly.com was named the best redesign among websites with fewer than 1 million unique monthly visitors.

Both lasvegasweekly.com and lasvegassum.com are products of Greenspun Media Group.

“Winning an EPPY is like winning an Oscar or Emmy in the online journalism business,” said Sun Publisher and Editor Brian Greenspun. “It’s industry experts telling us that in those categories, we’re as good as it gets in digital publishing. I couldn’t be more proud of the journalists and website developers who poured their hearts and souls into these efforts.”

Other finalists in the best news/event feature category were CNN for coverage of two events, the Newtown, Conn., school shooting tragedy and the 2012 elections; ESPN.com for “Out in the Great Alone” about the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog race; NBC News for “#DreamDay,” exploring the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.; Newsday for its coverage of Superstorm Sandy striking Long Island; the Denver Post for coverage of the Aurora theater shooting,; the Daily Oklahoman for its compilation of stories of how teachers and students survived a monster tornado, and the (Ontario, Canada) Globe and Mail, which revisited the 1972 “Summit Series” hockey competition between Canada and the Soviet Union.

Other finalists in the photography category were the Associated Press for its “Focus North Korea"; Ontario-based CBC News for its profile of controversial Toronto Mayor Rob Ford; the Chicago Tribune for its photo essays on gun violence; ESPN’s “Unity with the Universe” about the role of a fly rod in the life of a paralyzed man; and CNN for its photo blog.

In its 18th year, the EPPY Awards is an international contest honoring the best media-affiliated websites across 30 categories. In addition to the three first-place awards, the Greenspun Media Group was a finalist in three other categories.

The Sun was a finalist for best investigative/enterprise feature on a website with more than 1 million unique monthly readers for “Grace Through Grief"; lasvegasweekly.com was a finalist for best entertainment website with fewer than 1 million unique monthly visitors, and the GMG online business site vegasinc.com was a finalist as best business/financial website with fewer than 1 million unique monthly visitors.

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