yelvington.com

Congratulations to Dan Shorter for receiving the 2008 Online Innovator Award from the Newspaper Association of America. Dan was the longtime online chief at the Palm Beach Post and recently was named Internet VP at the Star Tribune, my old stomping ground up in the Great Frozen North.

I worked with Dan at Cox Interactive and he's a great guy. Wish I could have been in Orlando to hand him the award (I was the 2007 recipient), but I couldn't go this year.

I want to thank the members of the organization formerly known as the NAA New Media Federation for last night honoring me with the 2007 Online Innovator Award at the NAA Marketing/Connections conference in Las Vegas. Howard Finberg presented the award and pulled quotes from emails I had written more than a decade ago, which is a little frightening considering that sometimes I'm not sure I should have said what I said the morning after, much less more than 10 years after.

Two Morris newspapers won Digital Edge awards in their size classes, the Amarillo Globe-News winning Best Use of Interactive Media for PigskkinReview.com, and the Savannah Morning News winning Most Innovative Visitor Participation for SavannahNow.com, which merges social networking, community blogging and groups into a news site.

Contratulations to the recently orphaned Star Tribune, especially my northern friend designer Jamie Hutt, for taking home awards for site design (long overdue!), shopping site and local guide (the innovative vita.mn).

The NAA New Media Federation announced last that it's no longer the New Media Federation, as "new" doesn't apply very well in a field that's well over a decade old. Henceforth it will be known as the Digital Media Federation. Good move.