Best of Photojournalism 2007: Web Site Winners

Introduction (Keith Jenkins)

This year's Best of Photojournalism, Best of the Web contest found itself at the crossroads. Technology made its impact strongly felt this year by allowing audio and video to become true story-telling tools for visual journalists. This past year change has happened in rapid and dramatic fashion.

Our contest has had to adapt as well. Because of the still relatively new nature of web journalism, picking judges is an on-going challenge because of the still small pool of people with experience reporting, editing and managing in the online journalism environment. As a result, most of our judges spend at least part of the week 'sitting out' because they themselves had entries in the contest.

Also, since web story-telling techniques are a moving target, we often give great latitude to entries; we spend a day or so moving entries in and out of categories trying to find right place for them to compete. This year we also added a 'Best Multimedia' award while getting rid of the 'over', 'under' and 'indy' distinctions in the final three categories. This reflects the very large increase in multimedia packages entered, as well as the overall increase in quality found in media organizations of all sizes.

In this light we hope the results below will resonate and make sense. We are both trying to set a course for organizations to follow, while at the same time, trying to a capture "lightning in a bottle". There will be more changes next year, please stay tuned!

Winners Lists

For a general overview of the results, and additional commentary, check out the NPPA news story about the BOP 2007 Web Site results.

Best of Show

Once the judging for the Photo Gallery, Audio Slideshow, and Multimedia categories is complete, the winners go head-to-head to determine the absolute best of web photojournalism.

This year’s Best Use of the Web award went to a small-market site affiliated with a newspaper—but one whose online multimedia program is less than a year old.

Best Use of the Web: San Jose Mercury News
Best Multimedia: “Being a Black Man”, washingtonpost.com
Best Audio Slideshow: “A Prayer for Father Tim”, Minneapolis Star Tribune
Best Photo Gallery: “Land of Opportunity: Dashed Dreams”, The Roanoke Times

Multimedia Packages

The Best Multimedia Package: Highlights the use of audio, video and animation in the presentation of web-based stories. Judges will pay special attention to the use of available technology to complement and enhance the art of visual storytelling. Content, usability, and interactivity are key to this celebration of cutting-edge storytelling.; Large, Smaller, & Independent Sites

Natural Disaster Multimedia Package: Web presentations that use audio, video, and animation to capture and communicate the human and physical devastation wrought by a natural disaster. Content, usability, and interactivity are key elements to the storytelling in this category.; Large Sites (Small & Indy not awarded)

Audio Slideshows

Audio-enhanced photographic story-telling presented in a gallery or slideshow format. Animation can be used only to advance from one photograph to another; the emphasis here is on presenting great News, Sports and Feature photographs with the additional level of detail that audio can provide.

News Audio Slideshows: Large & Smaller Sites
Feature Audio Slideshows: Large, Smaller, & Independent Sites
Sports Audio Slideshows: Large & Smaller Sites
Natural Disaster Audio Slideshows: (none awarded)

Photo Galleries

News, Feature, and Sports journalism presented in a photo gallery format. The story-telling ability of the photograph is key, and the photographs should be presented in the most direct and easily accessible way possible. Animation can be used only to advance from one photograph to another, and there is no audio or video allowed in this category.

News Photo Galleries: Large, Smaller, & Independent Sites
Feature Photo Galleries: Large, Smaller, & Independent Sites
Sports Photo Galleries: Large & Smaller Sites
Natural Disaster Photo Galleries: Large & Smaller Sites

Photo Blogs

Personal photo sites of amateur photographers that carry on in the tradition of Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Dr. Erich Salomon of using photography to document our personal lives.

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