BBC News website scoops international award

The BBC News website has beaten strong competition from rivals to scoop a major international award recognising excellence in online journalism.

The website, which was revamped in July of last year, won the 'Online Journalism Award' for a large website at the Online News Association awards in Boston. It beat the New York Times, the Washington Post and Al-Jazeera English to take the accolade.

Editor Steve Herrmann told BBC News: "The award is brilliant news - it comes in the year following a major revamp of the news site, including a complete redesign.

"It's also been a year of huge news stories and we have been able to be increasingly effective at showcasing all the BBC's newsgathering potential and expertise on the site.

"We also launched our North America edition a year ago, and have just announced a further investment in Washington, to run an international edition of our popular magazine section, with the backing of BBC Worldwide, the BBC's commercial arm, which funds our services internationally."

Elsewhere in the ONA awards, Zeit Online, Flipboard and the Washington Post also picked up accolades.

The Los Angeles Times and Pro Publica each won $2,500 and the Gannett Foundation Award for 'Innovative Investigative Journalism' for their respective reports on corruption in a California town and the high cost of kidney dialysis in the US.

Online Journalism Association chairman Anthony Moor said: "What's most gratifying is to see the proliferation of quality work from next-generation digital journalists.

"While there is justifiable concern about the fate of numerous long-established newsrooms, there's a healthy amount of excellent work coming from a new class of publications that don't rely on broadcast or print to inform the public."

Meanwhile, BBC director general Mark Thompson has warned that journalism in the UK is facing a "dangerous period" because of attempts by police to force news providers to reveal their confidential sources.