The Jeff Beckham Weblog

Sure, awards are subjective — they subjectively good when you’re included in the finalists and winners, and subjectively bad when you’re not. But there is an interesting commonality running through many of the media websites nominated for 2008 EPpy Awards, the top interactive contest put on by Editor & Publisher and Mediaweek.

For news web sites, the winning strategy is clear — focus heavily on local content and make the most of the web, don’t simply take the stories from the morning print edition and make them available online. The best of this model can be found at sites that are, or have been, run by folks from a very small pool — people like Rob Curley, Dave Toplikar, and Adrian Holovaty, who worked together at one time or another at the Lawrence Journal-World.

Looking at the nominees for Best News Web Site (fewer than 1 million monthly visitors), there’s the Las Vegas Sun, LJWorld.com (the Lawrence newspaper site), and NaplesNews.com from Florida. All of those are places where these guys have worked. And Curley’s current site, WashingtonPost.com, is up for Best Overall Newspaper-Affiliated Web Site (1 million + monthly visitors).