Web site awards - with strong video journalism, thisiscornwall - give it up

Ladies and gentleman, please join me in giving it up for Gareth Bartlett and crew at Thisiscornwall for being crowned Website of the Year at the South West Media Awards.

A wee bit of history, Gareth and I crossed paths and had a couple days of swapping ideas and doing some Gonzo VJ stuff.

In no time, after heading back to his outfit he completely transformed it with some stunning video journalism pieces.


Outtakes - I love the way they're not afraid to take the P*** out of themselves

There are some 369 pieces, a truly delightful with a twist TAGGING story, and long format series programmes.

Go take a look, why don't you?


Me thinks this one is the Adidas made advert, but there's some interview stuff ThisisCornwall did with Beckham

Gareth has one of those eyes for VJ, in which an idea is never replicated and ideas are built upon.

He's already trained a whole lota staff, had a format which has been praised by management as a potential roll out, and appeared in the Press Gazette for his "Unusual Suspect" video.

He's only been doing video journalism for about 6 months

Bravo, Bravo Bravo!

+++++

Here's what they said about thisiscornwall and I'm sure this is one of many awards to come.

The site, competing against thisisplymouth.co.uk, The Bradley Stoke Examiner and thisissouthdevon.co.uk/nigelgreen, was praised for its use of video and for transforming itself in a short time period.

The judges said: "Since devoting resources to online news provision for the first time in 2007, thisiscornwall has seen a significant increase in traffic to its website. Visitor numbers for the first quarter of 2008 were up 54 per cent, compared to the previous year.

"The judges liked its strong use of videos, with some footage of police and trading standards showing just about everything that had gone on.

"The winner is a website the judges felt is still developing – but which showed real potential for the future."

Digital Editor Gareth Bartlett, who took control of the site in October, collected the award with Editor-in-Chief Andy Cooper and Assistant Head of Content Suzie Smith from EDF's customer account services director Steve Hayfield and paralympic swimmer Giles Long MBE. Giles overcame cancer to win more than 20 major medals including Paralympic, European and World Championship gold medals.

The event, held in association with holdthefrontpage.co.uk, welcomed more than 150 journalists to Swindon's railway museum, Steam, for the event.

The awards took in print and broadcast journalism from across the region, which includes Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall.