The Press-Telegram wins the April DFMie for the Los Angeles News Group with its team coverage of the Grand Prix of Long Beach.
The Long Beach Grand Prix took in nearly 250,000 page views during the 4-day event. Coverage was a collaboration between sports and metro and included a robust social media and video presence, and resulted in an interesting and entertaining mix of elements throughout the weekend. This was really a team effort.
Judges’ comments:
Obviously this is the biggest happening of the year for the area. The sheer depth of coverage of all aspects of the three-day event was massive, but what impressed me was the quality and variety of the Media Center galleries. Auto racing images can be rather redundant, but I found each photographer brought their own vision and style to every race, resulting in effective storytelling with a variety of viewpoints. In addition, the extensive coverage of peripheral events brought more opportunities for compelling stories, videos, touts and photographs beyond the actual car races.
Among the peripheral angles, covering the security issues after the Boston Marathon bombings was a timely idea, bringing a newsier slant to the event, with some meaningful images, letting the community know what to expect for their safety.
The community was engaged with a twitter feed throughout the event, with weather, race updates, crashes, etc. I especially enjoyed the video of community members giving their impressions of what a race car sounds like.
The collaboration between the news and sports elements of the weekend made for appealing and complete coverage that contained an extensive amount of information for everyone.
Another judge:
I think the thing that really pushed this above the other entries this month was the what-does-a-race-car-sound-like video. A light-hearted take on a topic that could otherwise be boring, and it was obvious that the participants in the video enjoyed participating almost as much as I enjoyed watching it.