REDMOND, Wash., Oct. 9, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- MSNBC.com received the Online News Association's Online Journalism Award for General Excellence among large news websites. The prestigious award "honors a Web site that successfully fulfills its editorial mission, effectively serves its audience, maximizes the use of the Web's characteristics and represents the highest journalistic standards." MSNBC.com was chosen out of a group of finalists that included the largest and most distinguished news websites in the country: The New York Times (www.nytimes.com), the Minneapolis Star Tribune (www.startribune.com), Washington Post (www.washingtonpost.com) and USA Today (www.usatoday.com). MSNBC.com won the same award in 2000.
MSNBC.com also received the top honor among large sites for the Outstanding Use of Multiple Media for its "Rising From Ruin" project. "Rising From Ruin: Two Towns Rebuild After Katrina" (www.risingfromruin.msnbc.com) takes an in-depth look at two Mississippi towns' recovery after Hurricane Katrina. MSNBC.com won the Creative Use of the Medium Award in 2002.
"This is a huge honor," said Jennifer Sizemore, editor in chief of MSNBC.com, at the Online News Association's annual awards ceremony in Washington D.C. on Saturday. "The journalists at MSNBC.com are the best in the business, and now what they deliver to our readers every day has been recognized by the best in the industry."
MSNBC.com continues to gain recognition for its excellence from both the industry and news consumers. In June 2006, MSNBC.com was the recipient of the National Press Club "Best Journalism Site" award for the third straight year and the fourth time in five years. In addition, a recent study by the Pew Research Center showed that among those who regularly get news online, 31% of consumers use MSNBC.com most often. CNN.com and Yahoo! News ranked a distant second at 23% each and FOXNews.com, ABCNews.com and CBSNews.com were well behind at 8%, 4% and 1%, respectively. In the monthly Nielsen//NetRatings, MSNBC.com consistently tops its news competition including CNN.com, CBSNews.com, ABCNews.com and FOXNews.com, drawing an average of 25 million unique visitors per month. That is more than the monthly unique visitors of CBSNews.com, ABCNews.com and FOXNews.com combined.
ABOUT MSNBC.COM
MSNBC.com, celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, is the exclusive online channel for the NBC Universal News family, which includes the Today show, NBC Nightly News, Dateline NBC, Meet the Press and MSNBC TV. MSNBC.com's driving force is to provide the optimal consumer experience, presenting a diverse range of original content and the best from partners in a rich multi-media environment that includes interactive features and free streaming video, allowing users to access the news and information they want, when they want it, 24 hours a day. Based in Redmond, WA, MSNBC.com is a joint venture of Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT) and NBC Universal News (NYSE:GE).