Newsroom by the Bay websites win kudos, admiration from guest judges

The judges — Rye Druzin, a former Newsroom by the Bay team leader and an intern for the Palo Alto Weekly, Marshall Watkins, summer managing editor of the Stanford Daily, and Daily summer photo editor Fran Gao — reviewed the websites for more than two hours and made awards in 13 categories. “They were hard decisions,” said Druzin.

Team Voice won best video, and Team Journal won best photo, for “a very good use of angles and framing.” Best thematic package went to Vanguard, “because their material was clearly targeted (to politics),” Druzin said.

Most Engaging Website went to Team Watchdog, “which was extremely relevant and effective.”

Best Design went to The Star, which “had a very crisp and clean design (that) nicely featured its photos,” Druzin said. Best Layout went to Team Outlook, which “had a simple and clear layout, and very good organized columns and sections,” Druzin said.

Most Collaborative Website — for the website that represented content from the entire team and not just one or two hard-working individuals — went to The Observer. “The entire team was engaged throughout the process, everyone had articles written and they were very well written,” Druzin said.

Best Overall went to Team Outlook. “This team had quality stories, an amazing layout and a fantastic use of social media,” Druzin said.