Last night the winners of the first Canadian Online Publishing Awards were announced at the Gladstone Hotel. This unique awards program, produced by Masthead, recognizes excellence in online editorial and innovation by Canadian magazine and website publishers.

Top winners include The Tyee, which had six nominations going into the evening, and came away with three top prizes for Best Website Design, Best News, and Best Community Feature. St. Joseph Media also won three awards for Torontolife.com, Fashionmagazine.com, and the 20-Minute Supper Club. Vancouver-based Canada Wide Media won a total of two awards, including Best Blog for Home [Eco]nomics and Best Article Series for its Ecofashion News on Granville Online. The top-performing B2B publisher was IT World Canada, which won two awards, including Best Overall Online-Only Website and Best News.

"There are many awards for online marketing and advertising but very few for online publishing with original editorial content," says Masthead publisher Doug Bennet. "We wanted to recognize the outstanding work done by editorially driven publishers, including publishers of online-only publications. Masthead is pleased to produce this first-ever event for the publishing community, and we congratulate all the winners. Your sites rock."

Fifty-seven finalists also received certificates at last night’s reception.

Over 250 entries were received for the contest, representing large and small publishers all over the country with magazine websites and online-only websites. Entrants were judged in two divisions: the red division for consumer, custom, religious, and public association websites and the blue division, for business-to-business, professional association, farm, and scholarly websites.

Websites competed in up to ten categories ranging from best news articles to best design to overall best website. All entries in each category were reviewed by an independent judging panel of highly regarded industry professionals and experts. The panels determined the winner and list of finalists in each category, based on their own expertise and criteria. The 18 winners in their respective categories and division are:

Best overall magazine website – Red
Torontolife.com —St. Joseph Media

Best overall magazine website – Blue
Salon52 —Salon Communications Inc.

Best overall online-only website – Red
DailyXY —XY Media Ventures

Best overall online-only website – Blue
ITBusiness.ca —IT World Canada
       
Best website design – Red
The Tyee —Countercurrent Media Ltd.

Best website design – Blue
Advisor.ca —Rogers Publishing

Best Blog – Red        
Home [Eco]nomics Blog on Granville Online —Canada Wide Media Ltd.
   
Best Blog – Blue    
University Affairs Margin Notes —Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada
   
Best Video – Red    
Fashionmagazine.com —St. Joseph Media
   
Best Video – Blue    
Trucknews.com —Business Information Group

Best E-newsletter – Red
20-Minute Supper Club —St. Joseph Media

Best E-newsletter – Blue        
Click! Weekly —Lloyd Media

Best Cross Platform - Red       
Albertaventure.com —Venture Publishing Inc.

Best Cross Platform - Blue       
Canadian Literature: CanLit Poets —University of British Columbia

Best News – Red        
The Tyee —Countercurrent Media Ltd.

Best News – Blue        
IT World Canada —IT World Canada

Best Community Feature – Red & Blue       
The Tyee – Green Your Campbell Cash —Countercurrent Media Ltd.

Best Article or Series – Red        
Granville Online – Ecofashion Series —Canada Wide Media Ltd.

Winning websites receive a certificate, promotion to 12,000 advertising professionals and media buyers through the Media In Canada e-mail news bulletin, plus additional media and promotion, including coverage on MastheadOnline.

For full information on contest, and to view the Gallery of Finalists, please visit www.canadianonlinepublishingawards.com.

Partners of the Canadian Online Publishing Awards 2009 include:
CCAB: BPA Worldwide, Cornerstone, GetStock (Event Sponsor), Media In Canada, and Masthead.