Two Interactive One Sites Awarded 2009 Webbys

April 20, 2009

InteractiveOne websites GIANTMag.com and TheUrbanDaily.com will both receive honorable mentions at this year’s 13th Annual Webby Awards. GIANTMag.com, the online extension of GIANT Magazine, is being recognized in the “Magazine” and “Celebrity/Fan” categories, and TheUrbanDaily.com, a site dedicated to entertainment, in the “Celebrity/Fan” category.

“It is a great honor to be recognized by the Webby Awards,” said Smokey D. Fontaine, Chief Content Officer, Interactive One. “We are very proud of the communities we are building around our sites, and of course, it is an even greater honor to have the only African American sites breaking through and creating quality content that is engaging our audience. It speaks to our company’s mission to be the leading and highest quality destination for anyone seeking out the African American perspective.”

Both of these sites are connected to and powered by BlackPlanet.com, another Interactive One property. According to a press release, Interactive One, started by Radio One in 2007 as an online extension of the company’s radio and television presence, reaches 50% of the African American online community. Their other sites include NewsOne, HelloBeautiful, and Elev8. Check our full coverage on InteractiveOne here.

The Webby’s have been around since 1996 and are presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. In one of the more unique traditions of award shows, winners are only allowed five word acceptance speeches. Comedian Seth Meyers from SNL is set to host this year’s awards gala for the second time on June 8 at Cipriani Wall Street in NYC. Followers on the Webby’s Twitter stream can win tickets to the event. Will.I.Am was the Webby Artist of the Year in 2008.

Category: News, web 2.0 | Tags: Giant magazine, InteractiveOne, TheUrbanDaily, webby awards

Nicole

That's pretty awesome, especially since (as far as I can remember) the Webby's have never had a black-focused site in their honoree or nominee list. I could be wrong, but I certainly can't think of any other Webby recognized sites.

It's great that sites made for us are getting noticed. So for that, I'll brush off this unintentional digg: "it is an even greater honor to have the ONLY African American sites breaking through and creating quality content that is engaging our audience" LOL. Umm, we small, independent publishers may be itty bitty compared to Interactive One, but that does not mean they are the only site the offers quality content that is engaging audiences.

But I digress, congrats Interactive One! And by the way Latina.com also got an honoree nod...

Love it! Black websites rock!
~Nicole

RayJ

Not really that awesome. I've won a Webby before. You pay roughly $300/site to enter and everyone who doesn't win the real award gets a consolation blue ribbon prize, in the form of being an "Honoree." You get a plaque and everything.

Good&Bad

Yeah the only real winners are the winners. There are dozens of black oriented and other blogs that have that level of sheen -- they just didnt enter... plus the formula to win is usually the bigger the company or the more the buzz the more the likely that youll get recognized. Very few small players with niether of the two criteria usually make the winners circle because its really easy to have a site with a nice sheen on it. At the end of the day - The Webbys is a cash cow of big players who need to please their clients (ie agency designed sites for major clients) and 10s of thousands hopefuls which ads up to their bottom line.