Year Three of the Associated Press Sports Editors Web contest brought record participation (125 entries) and an unprecedented number of judges (24) evaluating the field.
For the second consecutive year, the sites were judged over two dates, selected at random by the contest chair.
Entries were split into three categories: over 2 million average monthly unique users; 500,000-1.9 million uniques and under 500,000 uniques.
Special thanks to category chairs Dave Campbell of the Cleveland Plain Dealer (over 2 million), Reid Laymance of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (500,000-1.9 million) and Tom Bergeron of Yahoo! Sports (under 500,000) for their time and effort.
And kudos to the judges: Paul Kasko of the Sporting News; Nick Talbot of the Killeen Daily Herald; Kevin Brown of the Everett Herald; Mike Rose of Newsday; James Jahnke of the Detroit Free Press; Paul Skrbina of the Chicago Tribune and Carrie Cousins of the Roanoke Times judged the over 2 million group. Matt Pepin of Boston.com; Donna Eyring of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Houston Mitchell of the Los Angeles Times; Matt Bracken of the Baltimore Sun; Kevin Winters Morriss of the Southeast Missourian; Howard Sinker of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and Ed Guzman of the Washington Post evaluated the 500,000-1.9 million group. Mark Conley of the San Jose Mercury News; Todd M. Adams of the Orlando Sentinel; Mitch Rubin of the Washington Post; Loren Nelson of Minnesota Hockey Hub; Jeff Rosen of the Kansas City Star; Dennis Freeman of the Beverly Hills Times and Adena Andrews of the ESPNW considered under 500,000.
And the winners are …
OVER 2 MILLION
Top 10
Boston Globe
Chicago Tribune
Minneapolis Star Tribune
New York Daily News
New York Times
The Oklahoman
Palm Beach Post
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Washington Post
USA Today
Honorable mention
Baltimore Sun
Detroit News
Kansas City Star
Los Angeles Times
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Newsday
Orlando Sentinel
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
St. Petersburg Times
Philly.com
500,000 TO 1.9 MILLION
Top 10
Buffalo News
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Columbus Dispatch
The Dallas Morning News
Omaha World Herald
The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Salt Lake Tribune
Tampa Tribune
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Tulsa World
Honorable mention
Charlotte Observer
Columbia State
Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, Ill.)
Des Moines Register
Florida Times Union
Green Bay Press Gazette
Knoxville News Sentinel
Lexington Herald Leader
Times Herald-Record
Wisconsin State Journal
UNDER 500,000
Top 10
Beaumont Enterprise
Bloomington Herald-Times
Decatur Herald and Review
DeKalb Daily Chronicle
Eugene Register Guard
Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Lawrence Journal-World
Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, Ill.)
Quad-City Times (Davenport, Iowa)
Tuscaloosa News
Honorable mention
Augusta Chronicle
Bellingham Herald
Casper Star-Tribune
Glens Falls Post Star
Lewiston Sun Journal
Marin Independent Journal
Medford Mail Tribune
Southeast Missourian
Spartanburg Herald-Journal
Yakima Herald-Republic
