First place: Staff, ThisWeek Community News

About this entry: ThisWeek’s sports department and digital team created a specific site that encompassed high school football in central Ohio. The site had multiple special sections containing information about the new week’s upcoming games and briefs about the newsroom’s coverage plans and video previews of future games that focused on key players. Sections were also created that included players of the week, a weekly focus on top games and teams and members of the sports team’s predictions for the the outcome of upcoming games. Friday nights, the team would create a page that listed final scores of games and also included a Twitter widget of real-time scores of games, and by the end of the night would post game recaps with postgame interviews and photos. Further updates to pages would be made Saturday mornings, which would include uploads of video highlights from the games themselves.

Check it out: Friday Night Live

Read online: Cruisers look back on winning track, Area results from Week 7 games, Gahanna 28, Lancaster 21, Highlight video vault

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Embedded Tweets keep this destination live and engaging. Nicely shot, simply edited videos bring the excitement of high school football to life on desktop. Searchable school scores and schedules invite readers to return frequently for one-stop updates on high school sports. Suggested future improvements: Update and minimize the number of typefaces for a more contemporary look; optimize pages for mobile.

Second place: Staff, Waxahachie Daily Light

About this entry: When a tornado a tornado swept through Ellis County the day after Christmas, the Daily Light staff used online audio, video and photo galleries and digital tools like Storify not only to enhance their print coverage, but to bring more attention to the local survivors of the storm, which resulted in an outpouring of aid to the county.

Read online: County was ‘incredibly fortunate’ after tornadoes struck Saturday night, Photos: Tornadoes unleash fury on Ellis County, Photos: Officials survey massive tornado damage, Photos: Army of volunteers revamping former Red Oak middle school, Photos: Compassion, relief pour into Ellis County

Follow Waxahachie Daily Light on Twitter @WaxahachieNews

Under extremely difficult circumstances, the Waxahachie Daily Light accomplished a lot with a little. Targeted use of video, audio and photo galleries helped bring the scenes and sound of a tornado-devastated region to life. Suggested future improvements: Simpler navigation between related pieces of content, to encourage reader recirculation.

Third place: Scott Hummel, ThisWeek Community News

About this entry: ThisWeek News’ “Cops & Courts” webpage includes not only the area’s latest police, crime and court stories, but also includes actual police blotter and links to the sites of local law enforcement agencies and courts and a variety of searchable databases.

Check it out: Cops & Courts

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ThisWeek’s police and crime coverage is distinguished by links to localized, searchable databases that help readers find public-safety information specific to their communities.