Teesside Gazette Scoops Two Web Awards

A regional north-east newspaper has taken home two prizes from this year’s Association of Online Publishers (AOP) Awards.

The web-based communities initiative launched this year by the Teesside Evening Gazette scooped the top spot in the Online Community category.

According to the judges, the Gazette Communities website is “a cut above the other community sites - a great example of how to make local news real, with relevant interactivity.”

Meanwhile, GazetteLive.co.uk won the Teesside title its second award of the evening when it was named top Consumer Site.

The judging panel stated that the site “sets a new benchmark for local news sites - we felt that we were part of that community”.

Evening Gazette editor Darren Thwaites told holdthefrontpage.co.uk: “We've made enormous progress in the last year, embracing multimedia opportunities and creating a website to be proud of.

“The challenge for us now is to build on our success.”

Several national names also triumphed at the AOP Awards, such as the Sun Online which won Best Use of Video and the Telegraph Media Group which took the title of best Online Publisher.

A full list of winners can be viewed on the AOP web pages.