The University Affairs website took home top honours at the third annual Canadian Online Publishing Awards, winning gold for Best Companion Web Site in the blue division for business-to-business, professional association, farm or scholarly websites. Other nominees in that category included Quill & Quire, Conseiller.ca and Advisor.ca. This award is given to the publication deemed to best serve the needs of its target audience through content, design and use of the web medium. This category is for websites that also have a sister publication that exists in print.
COPA, which was held in Toronto on Oct. 24, recognizes the best in online editorial coverage and innovation by Canadian publishers.
This year’s awards ceremony introduced a new initiative: silver awards were also included, in addition to the gold awards, “due the volume of superior entries we have received,” announced Doug Bennet, publisher of Masthead. Cheers erupted from the packed room at the Gladstone Hotel in the trendy Queen Street West neighbourhood at this announcement, as many more publications were able to hold their heads high by receiving a silver honour. That includes the University Affairs website, which won silver for Best Website Design, an honour that it shared with the design firm ecentricarts inc.
The magazine was also a finalist in three other categories: Best News Coverage, Best Blog and Best Online-Only Series of Articles.
Earlier this year, University Affairs won a silver medal at the Kenneth R. Wilson Awards for business publishing in the Best Issue category for our February 2010 edition. We also received honourable mentions in the categories of Best Cover and Best Art Direction of a Complete Issue for the same issue.