2019 Azbee Awards of Excellence

Category

Design > Web Article Design > Mid Atlantic

Awarded to

Content Manager Scott Achelpohl, Managing Editor/Multiplatform Gary Kicinski, Staff Reporter Eugene Mulero, Photographer John Sommers II.

Entry details

NTDC Grand Champion Article

Issue date (if applicable): 
Publication name: Transport Topics
Publishing company: Transport Topics
Website home page: ttnews.com

Please describe the publication's mission and readership:

Transport Topics is the news leader in trucking and freight transportation and serves a weekly print readership of over 22,000 and a monthly unique visitor digital audience of nearly 190,000. For the last 80 years, the media group's hallmark coverage of the regulatory environment and the business and technology landscapes has set the standard in its competitive set. Transport Topics' journalistic mission is to ensure that executives in a fast-moving industry are kept abreast of industry issues that matter with constantly updated, refined, and relevant news on multiple platforms.

Please describe the enterprising work that went into this entry and its significance or impact on readers:

What elements would a user look for in a breaking news story about a person who reaches the pinnacle of his profession? Elements to supplement the basic text components that cover the news?
Those are the questions we asked ourselves as the National Truck Driving Championships prepared to crown its 2018 Grand Champion, recognizing one truck driver whose safety accomplishments had been matched by superior performances on a skills test in the cab and on a written test in the classroom.
We decided a user would want first and foremost to see and feel the excitement that the winner felt. So we led with a strong photo of champion Scott Osborne and added additional images lower on the page. We captured audio of his victory speech and displayed that in a Soundcloud player. We included video highlights of the championship round of competition and emotional moments from the closing banquet.
And we decided a user would want to have easy access to a rundown of champions in each class, as well as the scores of each competitor. So we included the names of champions in the article, and used Scribd to embed a document with scores of all 423 participants.
Lastly, we figured a user would want easy access to related coverage, so we incorporated in-line reefers and a sidebar box that drove readers to features such as photo galleries and an interactive map.
And we sprinkled all of them strategically throughout the article for the best possible reading experience.

Links to entry URLs

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Entry URL(s), if applicable:
https://www.ttnews.com/articles/scott-woodrome-becomes-ntdcs-grand-champion

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