BBC News website wins two Webbys

The website won the People's Voice award for the fifth year running

The BBC News website has scooped two gongs in this year's Webby Awards, which reward excellence on the net.

It won both the official Webby and the People's Voice award in the category of best news site.

Last year it lost out to the New York Times, which this year was compensated with the Best Copy gong.

The UK's Guardian newspaper picked up three awards, in the newspaper, religion and podcast categories, while The Onion won again for Humour.

Steve Herrmann, editor of the BBC News website, said the win was "fantastic".

"It's a tribute to the hard work, ingenuity and talent of the editorial, technical, design and support teams who work on the BBC News website, and to the commitment and excellence of the BBC's journalists everywhere," he said.

'Significant time'

He added: "This comes at a particularly significant time for the teams in BBC News who over this past year have done a great deal to change the way they work in order to bring together the work of the website with the rest of the BBC newsgathering and broadcast news operation."

It is the fifth year in a row the BBC News website has won the People's Voice accolade in the news category, which is decided by a public vote.

The BBC scooped two other awards in the Lifestyle section for its BBC climate change website dubbed Bloom, a look at how individuals can make a difference to climate change. It won the judge's award and the public vote award.

Other winners included the website behind the Technology Entertainment Design (TED) conference for the best use of video on a site.

Community award

Photo site Flickr won the community award, while YouTubeLIVE picked up the events gong.

Now in its 13th year, the Webbys have become the leading international award honouring excellence on the internet.

Established in 1996 during the Web's infancy, the Webbys are presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a 550-member body of leading Web experts, business figures, luminaries, visionaries and creative celebrities.

The Academy has a diverse membership including Simpsons creator Matt Groening, Virgin boss Richard Branson and the musician Beck.

Each year, the People's Voice Awards garners hundreds of thousands of votes from the Web community all over the world.

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