Citizen-Times web site wins SNPA honor

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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The Asheville Citizen-Times Web site has won second place in the South among newspapers its size (newspapers under 50,000 circulation). The web site was honored by the Southern Newspapers Publishers Association and its Better Newspaper Contest.

First place went to the Gainesville Times and its web site.

Here’s more about the awards, from the Gainesville newspaper’s story about them:

According to the SNPA news release, judges didn’t consider how many hits a Web site attracts but looked at the overall Internet experience that a reader visiting the page should expect to have. Awards were based on ease of navigation, search capabilities, attractive design, a promotional avenue for the print product, plus any extras offered by the site.

The judging panel was overseen by Randy Stano, professor of practice in visual journalism in the School of Communication at the University of Miami.

Second-place honors in this category recognized the Web site of the Asheville, N.C., Citizen-Times, www.citizen-times.com. Third place was a tie between two sites of the Amarillo (Texas) Globe-News, www.pigskinreview.com and www.amarillouptown.com.

Two notes: It looks like I will post this news on this web site before the Citizen-Times gets it posted. And just a few years ago, the Citizen-Times would have fallen into a category of newspapers with a circulation greater than 50,000. When I started with the newspaper in 1992, it had a daily circulation of more like 60,0000 to 65,0000, and a Sunday circulation of 75,000.