Times Leader dominates America East digital awards

Times Leader dominates America East digital awards

HERSHEY, Pa. — The Times Leader, a Civitas Media property in Northeast Pennsylvania, swept America East’s 2014 Digital Media Quality Awards, taking home more honors than any media outlet in the country.

The awards, announced Monday, March 31, at the America East news and technology expo, were given for work showcased at timesleader.com and its mobile apps.

The Times Leader won first place for Best Use of Technology, Best Community Website, and Best Overall Use of Social Media, as well as the prestigious Best Homepage Award.

It won second place for Best Interaction With Readers and Best Use of Video. It also won third place for Best Website Design, Best Multimedia and Best Overall Website.

“I want to congratulate our entire newsroom for the tremendous strides we’ve made in the digital space that further positions The Times Leader Media Group for continued audience growth and interaction with the community,” said Walt Lafferty, general manager and regional business development director.

The Times Leader beat out news and digital organizations significantly larger in size, including several national companies.

“Our newsroom breathes digital,” Executive Editor George Spohr said. “These awards recognize how far we’ve come in transforming how we do business.”

The Times Leader and its group of community weeklies and websites covers the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area, two hours from New York City and Philadelphia. Including its affiliated websites, timesleader.com generates more than 5 million pageviews per month and has more than 400,000 monthly unique visitors.