SAN FRANCISCO — FRONTLINE, ProPublica, NYTimes.com, France’s Rue 89 and Storify were among the news and technology organizations that took top honors Saturday night at the 2012 Online Journalism Awards Banquet, which ended the Online News Association Conference.

California Watch, the Tampa Bay Times and StateImpact Florida each won $2,500 and the Gannett Foundation Award for Innovative Investigative Journalism at the 13th annual awards dinner, sponsored by NBC News Digital. Entries for all awards were open to news produced for any digital device.

Each winner of the six General Excellence Awards took home a $3,000 prize, courtesy of the Gannett Foundation. The Knight Award for Public Service, which went to the start-up Homicide Watch D.C., comes with a $5,000 prize from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

The winners in the Breaking News categories were WNYC for its coverage of Hurricane Irene and the Los Angeles Times for Occupy L.A.

Launched in 2000, the OJAs are administered by the Online News Association, now in partnership with the University of Miami’s School of Communication, and are the only comprehensive set of journalism prizes honoring excellence in digital journalism, focusing on independent, community, nonprofit, major media and international news sites.

Here are the winners in each category, with links to their winning entries:

Knight Award for Public Service
Homicide Watch D.C.
http://homicidewatch.org/

General Excellence in Online Journalism, Small
FRONTLINE
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/

General Excellence in Online Journalism, Medium
ProPublica
http://www.propublica.org/

General Excellence in Online Journalism, Large
NYTimes.com
http://nytimes.com/

General Excellence, Non-English, Small/Medium
Rue89 (France)
http://www.rue89.com/

Gannett Foundation Award for Technical Innovation in the Service of Digital Journalism
Storify
http://storify.com/

Breaking News, Small
No finalist, no winner

Breaking News, Medium
Hurricane Irene Threatens New York City, WNYC
http://www.wnyc.org/blogs/wnyc-news-blog/2011/aug/25/hurricane-irene-barrles-toward-tri-state-area/

Breaking News, Large
Occupy L.A., Los Angeles Times
http://timelines.latimes.com/occupy-la-breaking-news/

Planned News/Events, Small
Congressional Primaries 2012, Knight News Innovation Laboratory, Northwestern University
http://www.congressionalprimaries.org/

Planned News/Events, Medium
12:51, Stuff.co.nz and The Press
http://www.stuff.co.nz/12-51

Planned News/Events, Large
The Reckoning – America and the World a Decade After 9/11, The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/thereckoning

Explanatory Reporting, Small
EarthFix
http://earthfix.opb.org/

Explanatory Reporting, Medium
College Completion: Who Graduates from College, Who Doesn’t, and Why It Matters, The Chronicle of Higher Education
http://collegecompletion.chronicle.com/

Explanatory Reporting, Large (tie)
Connecting Music and Gesture, NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/04/06/arts/music/the-connection-between-gesture-and-music.html

Gay Rights, State by State (and Beyond), The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2012/may/08/gay-rights-united-states

Explanatory Reporting, Student
No finalists, no winner

Topical Reporting, Small
EarthFix
http://earthfix.opb.org/

Topical Reporting, Medium
Continuing Coverage: NYPD Stop and Frisk, WNYC
http://www.wnyc.org/articles/wnyc-news/2012/may/29/city-teenagers-say-stop-and-frisk-all-about-race-and-class/

Topical Reporting, Large
Middle East Voices, Voice of America
http://www.middleeastvoices.com/

Online Commentary, Small
Bear 71, National Film Board of Canada
http://bear71.nfb.ca/

Online Commentary, Medium
Mad Men Coverage, Slate Magazine
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/tv_club/features/2012/mad_men_season_5/week_1/mad_men_returns_and_the_tv_club_puts_on_its_party_plaid_.html

Online Commentary, Large
Grantland.com — Bill Simmons, ESPN
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8026268/the-consequences-caring

Feature, Small
Coal: A Love Story, Powering a Nation
http://coalalovestory.com/

Feature, Medium
Breaking Caste, globeandmail.com
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/breaking-caste/

Feature, Large
Mauritania, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/mauritania

Feature, Student
Slab City Stories, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism
http://slabcitystories.com/

Gannett Foundation Award for Innovative Investigative Journalism, Small
No Choice: Florida Charter Schools Failing to Serve Students with Disabilities, StateImpact Florida (WUSF and WLRN-Miami Herald News Public Radio)
http://stateimpact.npr.org/florida/2011/12/14/no-choice-florida-charter-schools-failing-to-serve-students-with-disabilities/

Gannett Foundation Award for Innovative Investigative Journalism, Medium
Broken Shield, California Watch
http://californiawatch.org/public-safety/sloppy-investigations-leave-abuse-disabled-unsolved-14971

Gannett Foundation Award for Innovative Investigative Journalism, Large
Stand Your Ground, Tampa Bay Times
http://www.tampabay.com/stand

Non-English Projects, Small/Medium
Mexodus, Borderzine.com (Mexico / U.S.)
http://mexodus.borderzine.com/

Non-English Projects, Large
Portraits of Paraná, Gazeta do Povo (Brazil)
http://www.gazetadopovo.com.br/vidaecidadania/retratosparana/

News and Online Commentary, Student
The Red Line Project — NATO Coverage, The Red Line Project, DePaul University
http://www.redlineproject.org

About ONA
The Online News Association is the world’s largest association of online journalists. ONA’s mission is to inspire innovation and excellence among journalists to better serve the public. The membership includes news writers, producers, designers, editors, bloggers, technologists, photographers, academics, students and others who produce and distribute news for digital delivery systems. ONA also hosts the annual Online News Association annual conference and administers the Online Journalism Awards.

The data challenge, one of three launched by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation this year, accelerates projects with funding and advice from Knight’s network of media innovators. For the data round, Knight Foundation sought ideas that make the large amounts of information produced each day available, understandable and actionable.

“The winning projects go well beyond collecting data to unlocking its value in simple and powerful ways, so journalists can analyze numbers and trends, and communities can make decisions on issues important to them,” said Michael Maness, vice president for journalism and media innovation at Knight Foundation.

The winners of the challenge will present their projects via live Web stream at 4 p.m. EDT/1 p.m. PDT Saturday, Sept. 22, from the Online News Association conference in San Francisco.

Knight Foundation, the nation’s leading funder of journalism and media innovation, is committed to promoting democracy by supporting informed and engaged communities. Founded by newsmen John S. and James L. Knight, the foundation launched the Knight News Challenge in 2007 to find the next generation of innovations that help communities get the information they need.

The News Challenge is taking place three times this year, in shorter, more focused rounds that better mirror the pace of innovation. Winners of the first challenge, on networks, were announced in June. The third challenge, on mobile, recently closed and winners will be presented in January.

Over the challenge’s six years, Knight Foundation has reviewed more than 14,400 applications and funded 86 projects for more than $29 million. Winners include leading Internet entrepreneurs, emerging media innovators and traditional newsrooms. Their projects have been adopted by large media organizations and are having an impact.

DocumentCloud, which helps journalists analyze, annotate and publish original-source documents, is being used by more than 650 news organizations nationwide, and its open source code is the eighth and 30th most-watched on GitHub, a recent report found. Meanwhile, hNews, a project by Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee and the Media Standards Trust, has been integrated into more than 1,200 news sites. It allows readers to see the source of information in online articles.

Find out more about the winning projects during the Web stream of the Lighting Round presentation at ONA12, 4 p.m. EDT / 1 p.m. PDT.

Prepare for a packed schedule, beautiful California weather, unparalleled networking and — of course — the best in digital journalism. Below are a few details to help you make the most of your experience.

ONA12 goes mobile
Download our ONA12 conference mobile app to take the schedule wherever you go:

For iPhone/iPad users, visit ona2012.sched.org/mobile, press the share button and select “Add to Homescreen.”

For Android users, visit ona2012.sched.org/mobile and bookmark the desired page from your phone’s default browser. On your home screen, press and hold where you want the icon to save. From “Add to Home Screen,” select “Shortcuts.” Press “Bookmark,” and select the mobile app.

While you’re there, check out all 140+ of our presenters, also posted on the ONA12 sched.org site.

Registration
Grab your badge and bag at the registration desk in the Hyatt’s Regency Room, starting Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 a.m. each day. Important note: Full conference badges are required for entry into all ONA12 meals, sessions and special events.

Like to see who’s attending?
If you’re planning to come to the Online Journalism Awards Banquet, please check your email for a 30-second survey from us. Take the survey and the attendee list is yours.

A very dim sum opening night
Join us at the Opening Night Reception Thursday, Sept. 20, 7:30 p.m., at the historic Rincon Center, for an evening of geek delight, sponsored by NPR and Digital First Media. Bring your badge — you do need to be registered as a full-pass attendee. Map it here. Note: Enter at Spear Street, between Mission and Howard; all other entrances will be closed. If you’re unable to make it to the hotel to pick up your general pass before the opening night reception, volunteers will be able to check a list on site to let you in.

Hit the ATM for tees
You’ll find a colorful Stanford University-designed tee in each conference bag, and vintage conference tees will be available for $5 at a table near the registration desk.

Ask the Candidates: Send in your questions for Decision 2013
On Friday, Sept. 21, from 2:15-3:15 p.m., nearly all 15 candidates for the ONA Board of Directors will take the stage in Bayview AB to talk digital media issues, offer their vision for our organization, and take questions and tweets from the audience. Can’t make it to San Francisco? We’ll be livestreaming. Tweet your questions using the hashtag #ONAdecision, and Tweet Curator Steve Buttry will do his best to make sure they get asked.

ONA tribes, come together
Join your colleagues and ONA Local chairs for community get-togethers from 4:45-6 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 22, in the Hospitality Room (Atrium level). (There’s a rumor that beer will be had.) Come hear about ONA’s open-source approach to community building at one mighty meetup. Immediately following will be an ONA Local happy hour.

Locate yourself and your peeps
ONA Social Media Maven Jen Mizgata once again will be acting as control tower on the @ONAConf Twitter account, directing you to session rooms and pointing you to discussions of note. The conference hashtag is #ONA12. If you plan to blog, vlog or otherwise report out, let Jen know by sending tweeting links to @ONAConf.

Navigating San Francisco

• Find transportation to and from the Hyatt here
• Directions from airports here

Get ready to unconference
Even a program as packed as ONA’s can leave something out. The ONA unconference is here to fill the gaps, created and hosted by you, the attendee, and we have four spots to fill on Saturday. You can submit sessions at ONA Unconference until the end of the Opening Night Reception Thursday, Sept. 20. We’ll post a voting form to the page the evening of Thursday, Sept. 20, and keep it open until Friday, Sept. 21, at 5 p.m. Winners will be announced before the Friday Night Keynote. Submit your session today!

Events, 24/7
The journalism — and partying — just keeps going

• ONASF Welcome: On Wednesday, Sept. 19, at 7 p.m., come kick off ONA12 with our Local group with a party sponsored by PBS MediaShift and CIR. Meet local journalists and discuss the projects created in the Tech Raking II design sprint. RSVP now so you can join us at Gallery 16, 501 3rd Street, San Francisco, CA 94107.
• wjchat Social Journalism Meetup: For the second year running, the Social Journalism Facebook group and #wjchat Twitter chat will host a Friday night social gathering after the day’s official ONA events conclude. RSVP now and join us at Sens Restaurant, 4 Embarcadero Center, San Francisco, CA 94111 (just across the street from the Hyatt Regency).
• SoundCloud and Storyful present News from Noise: Discuss how startups are helping savvy publishers get social and enjoy some drinks at SoundCloud HQ San Francisco, 510 Treat Avenue, San Francisco, 94110. RSVP on Eventbrite.
• ONA12 Karaoke: Return of the Sing: This year’s unofficial karaoke bash wil be held at Pandora Karaoke & Bar, 177 Eddy St., San Francisco, California 94102. RSVP on Facebook.
• We’re posting more details as we get them on journalists.org, so check back for more meetups.

Wireless access update

• ONA12 will feature free wireless Internet access throughout the conference area, sponsored by ESPN. Look for the network ID: ONA12-ESPN.
• Bonus! Wireless access in guests room comes free.

See you soon!

Cheers,
Pam Maples and Anthony Moor, ONA12 Chairs
Jane McDonnell, Executive Director

NASA lands on ONA12
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory leads the $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory mission, which dropped the 1-ton Curiosity rover on the Red Planet’s surface Aug. 5. The impressive social media team managed to explode the Internet, building 1.1 million Twitter followers for the mission. Join us for the Friday Night Networking Keynote with Veronica McGregor, News and Social Media Manager, and Stephanie Smith, Social Media Specialist, of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. They’ll share insight on how they managed their brand across YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Ustream.tv and Google+ — plus some cool memes and videos from landing night.

The Midway @ ONA12
Looking for a chance to get your hands dirty with some new tools, dive deeper into current platforms and have your mind blown by the industry’s innovators? The Midway is jam-packed with excitement you won’t want to miss. Follow theMidway.tumblr.com for details and look for us to roll out information on all Midway happenings throughout the next week. Get updates at the conference by following #ONA12MW on Twitter. 

Get ready to get your uncon on
Maybe a session you pitched earlier wasn’t selected for the official ONA12 schedule. Maybe you’re experiencing a newsroom debacle and want to brainstorm solutions with others. Maybe you have a model that works and you absolutely need to spread the word. The Unconference sessions give you the chance (and allotted room space and schedule times) to discuss the ideas that matter to you.

Starting today, you can submit your pitches on Tumblr, on our Google form or via email. You’ll have until the end of the Opening Reception (9:30 p.m. PT on Thursday, Sept. 20) to send in your ideas. Voting will begin that evening and continue through 5 p.m. PT on Friday, Sept. 21. We’ll announce the winning sessions before the Friday night keynote at 6 p.m.

If you have questions about how the Unconference works, just let us know. Happy brainstorming!

Follow Team Unconference: Jessica, Tauhid and Gina.

Techraking II: Gaming the News
Are you a journalist, gamer, developer, or designer interested in making news games more awesome? ONA is partnering with the Center for Investigative Reporting and others to bring you TechRaking II: Gaming the News, the second conference in the TechRaking Series to explore the intersection of gaming technology and news. Join us for a full-day design sprint Sept. 19 in San Francisco. We’ll spend the morning exploring best practices in gaming the news and build together in the afternoon. Cost is $50. RSVP on Eventbrite: http://techraking2openreg.eventbrite.com/

Register now

Join legal experts from the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Thomson Reuters and educators from top law schools for a day of practical training on the emerging issues that impact your daily work, including:

Challenges of practicing journalism in the cloud
Reporting, editing and posting within the cloud brings its own security and privacy risks, which are amplified for journalists. This high-level discussion will address freedom of speech and freedom of the press in a digital world.

Running a digital news business
Get a guide to the legal questions that surround setting up and maintaining your media company. Get up to speed on branding, trademarks, and domain names; learn the dos and don’ts in advertising and email marketing; get familiar with the boundaries around behavioral advertising and privacy; and learn more about promotions and insurance coverage.

How to access information
State and federal Freedom of Information laws and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) allow you access to certain data, but gaining that access isn’t as easy as it should be. This course will teach you how to prepare effective FOIA requests and how to fight FOIA denials. You will also learn about your rights to access courts, court and government records, how to respond to courtroom closures and gag orders, and use of cameras and other communications devices in the courtroom.

You’ll get a mini-Master’s in media law for only $75 (for ONA members) and $100 (for non-members). Lunch and a networking cocktail reception are also included. For a look at the full schedule, with presenters, check out sched.org. Register now. 

Gannett, the New York Times and NPR are hiring! Join them and recruiters from other top media and tech companies and universities at the ONA12 Career Summit & Job Fair, Thursday, Sept. 20, at the San Francisco Hyatt Regency to find a job and hear about current openings.

These top media organizations all will be on site to recruit talent for positions in news, technology and development, including:

• At the USA TODAY booth, visit with Gannett, USA TODAY and USATODAY.com recruiters to find out more about openings, such as a Web Editor in Detroit and .Net Web Developer.
• At The New York Times booth, learn more about the openings on the digital team, including Segment Video Producer and Interactive News Developer.
• NPR is hiring for positions in New York and Washington, D.C., including Streaming Media Manager and Correspondent/Host for Planet Money.
• Patch is hiring local editors in New Jersey, New York, Minnesota, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and more.
• American Public Media, the Washington Post and other top companies with jobs also will be on hand to discuss career opportunities with you.

Recruiters will meet for drop-in interviews with job-seekers, who will also benefit from resume critiques and work evaluation with Cristina Azocar of San Francisco State University.

The Career Summit & Job Fair schedule — free for student members, $25 for members, $50 for non-members — offers a full day’s immersion into learning, networking and job-hunting. It is also the unofficial kick-off to ONA’s 2012 Annual Conference, which follows over the next two days. Featured CS&JF speakers include:

• Martina Castro, Co-Founder & Senior Producer, Radio Ambulante
• Kate Gardiner, Founder, distill
• Jenny 8 Lee, Co-Founder, Plympton Media
• Mark Luckie, Creative Content Manager, Journalism, Twitter
• Doug Mitchell, Consultant, WebbMedia and Project Manager, NPR
• Michelle Minkoff, Interactive Producer, Associated Press
• Daniel Victor, Social Media Producer, The New York Times
• Jon Vidar, Co-Founder & Executive Director, Tiziano Project
• Sherbeam Wright, Co-Founder, LitHit

To register for the Career Summit & Job Fair, visit http://ona12.journalists.org/register/career-summit-job-fair/.

Are you a recruiter looking for your next hire? Register for a table.

We’re glad you’ll be joining us for the 2012 Online News Association Conference and Awards (ONA12) in San Francisco next month. As we’ve been getting ready for the conference, it’s come to our attention that some attendees and speakers are receiving messages from representatives from a labor union, Unite Here, about an ongoing labor dispute between the union and the Hyatt hotel chain. We wanted to give you some background, clear up any misunderstandings, and let you know, to the best of our ability, what to expect in San Francisco.

Unite Here and the Hyatt Corporation have been in negotiations for two years over a range of issues. While tentative agreements have been made regarding wages and benefits, policies regarding union-membership voting rules and broader Hyatt chain worker safety history remain unresolved. (More details can be found at The Hyatt Corporation website and the Unite Here website and hotelworkersrising.org.)

Because of these unresolved issues, Unite Here has waged a campaign to urge travelers and meeting planners to boycott Hyatt Hotels. We were not made aware of the dispute by Unite Here or the hotel until 2012, a year after we signed our contract with the Hyatt Regency. Pulling out of a binding contract at that point would have been a six-figure cost — a non-starter for a nonprofit organization such as ours. As you know, we rely on the registration and sponsorships that come from our annual conference to provide member benefits and serve our journalism community. So while ONA is supportive of the ongoing negotiations process and has urged both parties to resolve their issues in a timely manner that is fair to all, we will hold our meeting as planned at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco from Sept. 20-22.

Demonstrations ramped up in July, when a group of unions supported a global boycott of the Hyatt hotel chain. The Hyatt Regency staff is not on strike, nor — as far as we can know — are they expected to be, so ONA12 attendees will not be crossing a picket line, although there may be demonstrations. If that changes, we will let you know and offer conference refunds to anyone who feels uncomfortable with the situation by Sept. 12, according to our standard refund policy. At the conference itself, we will urge our media attendees and student newsroom to cover all sides of the issue as they see fit.

Our organization is not alone in being approached by Unite Here. Other major membership associations holding their conferences at a Hyatt property, such as the Society for Prevention Research and the American College for Environmental and Occupational Medicine, have been contacted in the past as well. Other hotels targeted for boycotts are in San Francisco, Chicago and Honolulu.

We’ve updated an FAQ we posted earlier this year with more information, located on the ONA12 website here.

If you are an attendee or speaker with any questions or concerns, please feel free to get in touch with Executive Director Jane McDonnell at ona12@journalists.org.

I look forward to seeing you in San Francisco.

All the best,
Jim Brady
ONA Board President

2012 Online Journalism Awards finalists announced

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Finalists for the 2012 Online Journalism Awards, many pushing the envelope of innovation and excellence in digital storytelling and distribution, were announced today by the Online News Association and its academic partner, the School of Communication at the University of Miami.

A group of 34 industry-leading journalists and new media professionals teamed up to review entrants and select finalists. Twelve of those judges, representing a diverse cross-section of the industry, and 12 more internationally conferred to determine winners from independent, community, nonprofit, major media and international news sites.

The results will be announced at the 2012 ONA Conference and Online Journalism Awards Banquet on Saturday, Sept. 22, in San Francisco.

This year, ONA introduced category changes to ensure the awards maintain their innovative front edge by breaking out content by topic; categorizing entries by staff size rather than audience metrics, and assuming the use of the latest digital platforms and technologies. Eight awards come with a total of $33,000 in prize money, courtesy of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Gannett Foundation, which also is supporting innovative investigative work with two $2,500 awards.

“Once again, we were overwhelmed with the quality of work submitted,” said ONA Board member Josh Hatch, who, along with the Associated Press’ Director of Global Product Operations Ruth Gersh, co-chairs the Online Journalism Awards Committee. “The use of multimedia, the power of data and social media, and the ability of journalists to integrate them to inform, entertain, and emotionally connect with readers has set a high water mark.”

Here are the finalists, in alphabetical order:

Knight Award for Public Service

• Abused and Used, The New York Times
• Broken Shield, California Watch and Center for Investigative Reporting
• Empty Cradles, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
• Homicide Watch D.C.
• Stand Your Ground, Tampa Bay Times

General Excellence in Online Journalism, Small

• FRONTLINE
• Homicide Watch D.C.
• St. Louis Beacon
• The Texas Tribune

General Excellence in Online Journalism, Medium

• California Watch
• ProPublica
• Slate Magazine
• WNYC

General Excellence in Online Journalism, Large

• CNN Digital
• NYTimes.com
• The Seattle Times
• WSJ.com

General Excellence, Non-English, Small/Medium

• 20minutos.es (Spain)
• Il Tirreno (Italy)
• Rue89 (France)

Gannett Foundation Award for Technical Innovation in the Service of Digital Journalism

• CartoDB
• NewsCred
• Open Source Election Tools, Los Angeles Times
• Storify

Breaking News, Medium

• Hurricane Irene Threatens New York City, WNYC
• Occupy Nashville, The Tennessean
• University of Alberta Shooting, Edmonton Journal

Breaking News, Large

• The Death of Muammar Gaddafi, Al Jazeera English
• The Fall of Tripoli, The Associated Press
• Hurricane Irene, The New York Times
• Occupy L.A., Los Angeles Times

Planned News/Events, Small

• Congressional Primaries 2012, Knight News Innovation Laboratory, Northwestern University
• Primary Night 2012, The Texas Tribune
• Supreme Court and Health Care Reform, WebMD

Planned News/Events, Medium

• 12:51, Stuff.co.nz and The Press
• Oscars Coverage, Slate Magazine

Planned News/Events, Large

• Judging The Health Care Law, NPR
• The L.A. Riots, 20 Years Later, Los Angeles Times
• The Reckoning – America and the World a Decade After 9/11, The New York Times
• Tenth Anniversary of 9/11 Attacks, Newsday.com

Explanatory Reporting, Small

• Andrew Leonard: The Student Loan Crisis, Salon
• Class: The Great Divide, St. Louis Beacon
• EarthFix
• The Farmer of the Future, Harvest Public Media
• Putting Detroit’s Problems in Regional and Historical Context, Remapping Debate

Explanatory Reporting, Medium

• College Completion: Who Graduates from College, Who Doesn’t, and Why It Matters, The Chronicle of Higher Education
• The Opportunity Gap: Is Your State Providing Equal Access to Education?, ProPublica
• Our Time to Lead: Immigration, globeandmail.com

Explanatory Reporting, Large

• Connecting Music and Gesture, NYTimes.com
• Gay Rights, State by State (and Beyond), The Guardian
• A Record Chain of Kidney Transplants, NYTimes.com
• Somalia: Where Famine Is a Crime, The Toronto Star
• StateImpact, NPR and Public Media Stations in Eight States

Topical Reporting, Small

• Counterspill
• EarthFix
• Nieman Journalism Lab

Topical Reporting, Medium

• California Lost, California Watch
• Continuing Coverage: NYPD Stop and Frisk, WNYC
• Education Coverage and the Turnaround, Las Vegas Sun

Topical Reporting, Large

• CNN Belief Blog, CNN
• FiveThirtyEight — Nate Silver’s Political Calculus, The New York Times
• Middle East Voices, Voice of America
• Philly School Files, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Online Commentary, Small

• Bear 71, National Film Board of Canada
• Mary Elizabeth Williams, Lab Rat, Salon
• Minorities Within a Minority Culture, The Mary Sue

Online Commentary, Medium

• Kevin Drum Blog, Mother Jones
• Mad Men Coverage, Slate Magazine
• Nahlah Ayed: The Everyday Brutality That Is Assad’s Syria, CBC News
• Slate Political Gabfest, Slate Magazine

Online Commentary, Large

• Death and Dying — Steve Lopez, Los Angeles Times
• Grantland.com — Bill Simmons, ESPN
• Lyndsey Parker Yahoo! Music, Yahoo!
• The Seattle Times Editorial Section, The Seattle Times

Feature, Small

• Bear 71, National Film Board of Canada
• The Canoe Project, WLRN-Miami Herald News & Under the Sun on WLRN
• Coal: A Love Story, Powering a Nation
• Twitter by Post, The Morning News

Feature, Medium

• Aftermath Special Presentation, ABC Open
• Breaking Caste, globeandmail.com
• The Education of Dasmine Cathey, The Chronicle of Higher Education

Feature, Large

• Following the Dreamers: What Happened to the Seat Pleasant 59?, The Washington Post
• Mauritania, CNN
• Outside the Lines: A Man Obsessed, ESPN
• Punched Out — The Life and Death of a Hockey Enforcer, NYT.com
• Under Suspicion: Voices About Muslims in America, The Washington Post

Feature, Student

• Finding the Uwharries, Carolina Photojournalism Workshop, University of North Carolina
• Slab City Stories, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism
• Visualizing Florida, University of Miami Graduate Program in Multimedia Journalism

Gannett Foundation Award for Innovative Investigative Journalism, Small

• No Choice: Florida Charter Schools Failing to Serve Students with Disabilities, StateImpact Florida (WUSF and WLRN-Miami Herald News Public Radio)

Gannett Foundation Award for Innovative Investigative Journalism, Medium

• Broken Shield, California Watch
• Decoding Prime, California Watch
• Redistricting: How Powerful Interests Are Drawing You Out of a Vote, ProPublica
• Terrorists for the FBI, Mother Jones

Gannett Foundation Award for Innovative Investigative Journalism, Large

• The Fed’s Trillion-Dollar Secret, Bloomberg News
• Methadone and the Politics of Pain, The Seattle Times
• Stand Your Ground, Tampa Bay Times

Non-English Projects, Small/Medium

• Mexodus, Borderzine.com (Mexico / U.S.)
• To Understand the Crisis, 20minutos.es (Spain)
• Whisper Jokes in the GDR – Protest Off the Record, Berliner Morgenpost (Germany)

Non-English Projects, Large

• The Cords That Bind Us, El Tiempo (Colombia)
• First Anniversary of Japan Earthquake, Universo Online (Brazil)
• Portraits of Paraná, Gazeta do Povo (Brazil)

News and Online Commentary, Student

• The Red Line Project — NATO Coverage, The Red Line Project, DePaul University
• USC Shootings, Neon Tommy

The judges of this year’s awards were:

• Rich Beckman, Knight Chair in Visual Journalism, University of Miami
• Heather Billings, News Applications Developer, Chicago Tribune
• Paul Bucci, Director, Digital Products, Pacific News Group
• Neil Budde, CEO, Philadelphia Public Interest Information Network
• Jeanne Carstensen, former Executive Managing Editor, The Bay Citizen
• Ron Coddington, AME Visuals, Chronicle of Higher Education
• Anil Dash, Founder, ThinkUp and Activate
• Kat Downs, Interactive Projects Editor, Washington Post
• Kathleen Ehrlich, Director of Digital Content, New York Public Radio
• Alex Howard, Technology Writer and Editor, O’Reilly Radar
• Elise Hu, Digital Editorial Coordinator, NPR
• Rich Jaroslovsky, Technology Columnist, Bloomberg News; ONA founding president
• Mark Katches, Editorial Director, Center for Investigative Reporting
• Scott Klein, Editor of News Applications, ProPublica; Co-Founder of DocumentCloud
• Colin Mulvany, Photojournalist and Multimedia Producer, The Spokesman-Review
• Tasneem Raja, Digital Interactive Editor, Mother Jones
• Ju-Don Roberts, General Manager and Senior Vice President, Everyday Health
• Zach Seward, Senior Editor, Quartz
• Will Sullivan, Mobile Product Manager, Broadcasting Board of Governors
• Ryan Thornburg, Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina
• Matt Waite, Professor, University of Nebraska
• Ben Welsh, Database Producer, L.A. Times
• Dave Wright, Digital Design Director, NPR
• Chrys Wu, User Engagement Strategist, Matchstrike LLC

Non-English Awards:

• Rosental Alves, Director, Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, University of Texas, Austin
• Paul Brannan, Independent Digital News Consultant, London
• Arianna Ciccone, International Journalism Festival, Perugia, Italy
• Wang Feng, Online Editor, South China Morning Post, Hong Kong
• Katie King, Senior Product Manager, MSN UK, London; ONA board member
• Tetyana Lokot, Head of New Media Sequence, Mohyla School of Journalism, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Ukraine
• Dorothy Parvaz, Online Journalist, Al Jazeera English, Doha, Qatar
• Angela Pimenta, PATRI Políticas Públicas, São Paulo
• Eric Scherer, Director of Future Media, France Televisions, Paris
• Mario Tedeschini-Lalli, Deputy Director Innovation and Development, Gruppo Editoriale L’Espresso, Rome; ONA board member
• Nick Wrenn, Vice President of Digital Services, CNN International, Atlanta
• Jose Zamora, Univision News, Miami

Judges were recused from discussing categories in which their own organizations were entered.

The judges did not name finalists in the Breaking News, Small and Explanatory Reporting, Student categories.

ONA did not receive enough entries to judge the General Excellence, Non-English, Large category. Those entrants have been notified and refunded. In addition, three student categories were combined to make up the News and Online Commentary, Student category. Those entrants have been notified.

Launched in 2000, the OJAs are the only comprehensive set of journalism prizes honoring excellence in digital journalism. OJA judging is accomplished in partnership with the University of Miami’s School of Communication. 

About ONA
The Online News Association is the world’s largest association of online journalists. ONA’s mission is to inspire innovation and excellence among journalists to better serve the public. The membership includes news writers, producers, designers, editors, bloggers, technologists, photographers, academics, students and others who produce and distribute news for digital delivery systems. ONA also hosts the annual Online News Association annual conference and administers the Online Journalism Awards.

About the University of Miami School of Communication
The University of Miami School of Communication prepares analytical and responsible communication professionals for success in a global society. The School offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in journalism, broadcasting, advertising, public relations, visual journalism, communication studies and motion pictures. The School’s state of the art, all-digital facilities and resources are among the most advanced in the country. Approximately 1,500 students are enrolled.

About Knight Foundation
Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. We believe that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.

About the Gannett Foundation
The Gannett Foundation is a corporate foundation sponsored by Gannett Co., Inc. whose mission is to invest in the future of the communities in which Gannett does business, and in the future of our industry. It supports projects that take a creative approach to fundamental issues such as education and neighborhood improvement, economic development, youth development, community problem-solving, assistance to disadvantaged people, environmental conservation and cultural enrichment.

ONA12 is now sold out, but we still have space in our hands-on workshops — you don’t have to be registered for ONA12 to attend.

Full-Day Workshops

Law School For Digital Journalists: Immerse yourself in the legal challenges facing digital journalists in this course taught by leading media lawyers and journalism educators, including copyright, newsroom law, international media law, access and FOIA, and the legal issues involved in launching and running a digital news operation.
Member price: $75 Non-member price: $100 Register

Intro to Design Thinking: Join faculty and journalists from Stanford’s d.school and learn new ways to conceptualize stories and projects. Led by the staff of Stanford’s world-renowned Hasso M. Plattner Institute of Design — commonly called the d.school — and journalists who have trained there, this is a once-in-a-lifetime crash course in ideas and real-world experiences you can take back to energize your team.
Member price: $75 Non-member price: $100 Register

Introduction to Practical Programming: Learn one of the most desirable skills in the newsroom today: coding. Propublica’s Dan Nguyen and other leading coders will teach you basic programming concepts, how to write your first program and to write routines to handle some of your current tasks.
Member price: $100 Non-member price: $125 Register

Half-Day Workshops
9 a.m.-noon

Agile Product Design and Product Management: Learn how to effectively develop projects, from idea to scoping to scheduling to execution, and get hands-on experience using an agile-inspired, iterative-driven project management style. Suitable for managers, web producers and anyone who works on short- or long-term projects.
Member price: $50 Non-member price: $60 Register

Intro to Data Viz: Learn how to enhance your reporting and tell richer stories by turning data into charts and maps, courtesy of John Keefe, Senior Editor, Data News, WNYC.
Member price: $50 Non-member price: $60 Register

1-5 p.m.
J-Lab’s News Entrepreneuring 4.0: This series of sessions curated by J-Lab will focus on the specific challenges confronting entrepreneurial news start-ups. Join experts who will share practical advice on how to sell ads, audience-engagement strategies, collaboration models and university-news entrepreneurship models.
Member price: $50 Non-member price: $60 Register

Election Tools and Data: Join Jesse Friedman, Product Marketing Manager, Google, and John Keefe to learn about free and cheap tools that provide information on where to vote, who’s running, and who’s winning local races on election night.
Member price: $50 Non-member price: $60 Register

Intro to Mobile: Learn how news agencies can use new technologies to innovate in the mobile space, investigate the current trends in the app market, and plan your mobile product strategy.
Member price: $50 Non-member price: $60 Register

Offsite Workshop

Hacks/Hackers Hacking at ONA12: Geared towards journalists, developers and designers, this hackday will give you a chance to collaborate with others on projects that shape the future of news and civic information. Meet new people, make new friends and work on those projects you’ve been thinking about. This year’s event will be at Storify headquarters in SoMa.
Price: $30 Register

Gaming technology and news meet at TechRaking II
Are you a journalist, gamer, developer or designer interested in making news games more awesome? ONA is partnering with the Center for Investigative Reporting, IGN, and Public Radio International to bring you TechRaking II, the second conference in the TechRaking Series to explore the intersection of gaming technology and news. Join us for a full-day design sprint Wednesday, Sept. 19, in San Francisco. We’ll spend the morning exploring best practices in gaming the news and build together in the afternoon. For more information, check out CIR.org. For registration information, contact Kristin Crawford at kcrawford@cironline.org. This will be ONA’s first day of activities leading up to ONA12, followed by a full day of Thursday Workshops and Opening Night Reception, and the ONA12 general sessions Friday and Saturday.

Just added: Intro to Design Workshop
“Human-Centered Design” isn’t just about making good web pages, it’s a way of conceptualizing stories, projects and even your workspace. Toss in concepts of “show don’t tell,” “rapid prototyping” and “radical collaboration” and you’ve got Silicon Valley-style innovation jumpstarting your editorial and production process. This workshop will be led by staff of Stanford’s world-renowned Hasso M. Plattner Institute of Design — commonly called the d.school — and journalists who have trained there and will be a crash course in ideas and real-world experiences you can take back to energize your team. Join us Sept. 20 for this full-day workshop. Cost is $75 for ONA members and $100 for non-members.

Looking for a different training experience? Sit in on a master course from legal rock stars in our Law School for Digital Journalists, get an Intro to Mobile, or learn the basics of programming in one of our many Thursday workshops.

Let’s party
The number of side parties springing up around the conference grows every year. Here’s a list so far — many more are in the works.

• ONA SF, the Center for Investigative Reporting and MediaShift are hosting a party after TechRaking II on Wednesday, Sept. 19 at Gallery 16. It’s open to all with RSVP.
• #Socjourn and #wjchat host a meetup on Friday, Sept. 21.

If you’re organizing an off-hours affiliated party, meet-up or event in SF around ONA12, let us know on Twitter using the hashtag #ONA12 or email us at ona12@journalists.org and we’ll help get the word out. We’ll be listing all finalized events on journalists.org.

Just a few spots left at ONA12
If you still haven’t registered yet, there are just a few spots open, so don’t delay. Register now.