'irishtimes.com' wins media award

The Irish Times website has been named Best in Media at the 2010 Digital Media Awards.

irishtimes.com beat competition from RTÉ's Morning Ireland and News Now in the category, which was open to all websites offering Irish and international news.

Judges commended the site on its rich content and information, and noted it would appeal to both a general audience and those with specific interests.

"I'm delighted to accept this award on behalf of the many people who work hard every day to make irishtimes.com Ireland's best news website," said online editor Hugh Linehan.

"This is a welcome recognition of their professionalism and commitment. Our most recently audited traffic figures, showing 2.3 million unique users per month, show that we are continuing to grow our share of the ever-expanding online audience for quality journalism.”

The traffic figures also show that irishtimes.com had 26,125,196 page impressions for November 2009.

Last night's awards, attended by Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan, were designed to recognise excellence in the digital industry. RaboDirect was awarded best in financial services ahead of AIB and National Irish Bank. Heinekin Music, meanwhile, won best entertainment portal.

O2's "be the difference" campaign was judged to be the best online campaign, despite competition from Guinness, Powerade and Coke.

Ronanlyons.com was named best Irish blog, while the MyHome.ie iPhone app lost out to Three Ireland's Planet Three service in the best mobile internet innovation category. MyHome.ie is owned by The Irish Times.

The ultimate digital provider award went to music video website Muzu.tv. Founder Ciaran Bollard said the company was "ecstatic" with the award.