The conference of the Online News Association climaxed on Friday night with the awards ceremony. USAToday was the overall winner for general excellence as the judges were impressed how it had moved to put its audience at “the centre of news, not just at the receiving end”. One of the most interesting aspects of the awards was how blogs won many of the 20 categories. Blogs won in: Online commentary

If you are a journalism student, this is what senior editors are looking for. Speaking at the ONA 2007 conference, Kinsey Wilson of USAToday said J-school students need a grounding in the fundamentals of journalism – research, reporting, writing. But secondly, they need a complete immersion in the news media and the technology that surrounds it. Wilson wants students who are comfortable and conversant with the new media tools, and

The first ONA panel on day 2 is about how to manage a newsroom in the 21st century. Despite starting at 8.30am, the session is pretty packed. This is understandable, as just about every newsroom is struggling to bridge the cultural differences between print, broadcast and online. Jim Brady from the WashingtonPost.com admitted that managing the relationship with the print side was still the biggest challenge he was dealing with.