DallasNews.com Receives Eppy Award
Dallas, TX — Belo(NYSE: BLC) announced today that DallasNews.com, Belo Interactive’s online site affiliated with The Dallas Morning News, received an EPpy Award for the Best Special Section in a Newspaper Online Service. The EPpy Awards, which honor the best work by the newspaper industry in the online/Internet field, are sponsored annually by Editor & Publisher magazine. The awards were presented as part of Editor & Publisher’s 12th Annual Interactive Newspapers Conference and Trade Show in Dallas and recognized winners in 21 categories.
DallasNews.com, which generated a total of 189 million page views in 2000, received the award for “Toxic Traps,” a three-day series published in October 2000 in concert with The Dallas MorningNews that examined the proximity of public housing to toxic waste sites. As a special feature to online users, DallasNews.com provided resources to readers to learn if they might be at risk, including a searchable national database to locate toxic air pollution sources in a geographical region or near a particular public housing project and a glossary of toxic terminology.
Covering the story were Craig Flournoy, Randy Lee Loftis and Ed Timms, writers; Pam Maples, project editor; David Woo, photographer; Laura Betts Ford, in charge of Web site design and multimedia; Honny Bee Ball and Chris Morris, in charge of graphics; John Cranfill, database editor; and Lourdes Trujillo, in charge of the database.
Another DallasNews.com story nominated in the same category was “Hidden Wars,” an in-depth look at armed conflicts around the world. “Hidden Wars” was also a special section of The DallasMorning News, first published 11 years ago, that examined the worldwide struggles for peace following the end of the Cold War.
Commenting on DallasNews.com’s award, Jim Moroney, president of Belo Interactive, Belo’s Internet subsidiary, said, “We are always most proud when we are recognized by our peers. This EPpy Award reflects the commitment to quality of every employee of DallasNews.com.”
Also nominated for EPpy Awards in two separate categories was Projo.com for Best Use of Interactivity in a Newspaper Online Service for its scrapbook feature “Your Garden Shots,” and Best Design of a Newspaper Online Service. Projo.com, the online site affiliated with Belo’s The Providence Journal, surpassed 4.6 million page views in January.
DallasNews.com and Projo.com are part of Belo Interactive, which was formed in May 1999 to extend and expand Belo’s core news product online and develop new interactive products – individually and through alliances with other companies.
Belo Interactive now manages 38 Web sites including DallasNews.com and WFAA.com, two of its top Web sites, and its new media businesses include several interactive alliances and a broad range of Internet-based products.
In 2000, page views on Belo Web sites grew from 23 million per month in January to more than 71 million per month in December, a 307% increase. Growth in unique visitors was even more, rising from 548,000 in January to 4.9 million in December, an increase of almost 900%.
About Belo
Belo is one of the nation’s largest media companies with a diversified group of market-leading broadcasting, publishing, cable and interactive media assets. A Fortune 1000 company with more than 8,500 employees and $1.5 billion in annual revenues, Belo operates news and information franchises in some of America’s most dynamic markets and regions, including Texas, the Northwest, Arizona, Southern California, Rhode Island, and the Mid-Atlantic region. Belo owns 17 television stations (six in the top 17 markets) reaching 13.7 percent of U. S. television households; owns or operates six cable news channels; and manages three television stations through local marketing agreements. Belo publishes five daily newspapers including The Dallas Morning News, The Providence Journal and The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, CA.). Belo Interactive’s new media businesses include 38 Web sites, several interactive alliances, and a broad range of Internet-based products. For more information, contact Skip Cass, Belo’s senior vice president, at 214-977-6602. Additional information, including earnings releases, are available online at http://www.belo.com.