Posted Oct. 12, 2007

WASHINGTON – The News-Press of Fort Myers, Fla., received the most votes from editors in real-time voting at the Associated Press Managing Editors annual conference to become APME's first Innovator of the Year.

The News-Press was honored for its culture of innovation and a series of trend-setting initiatives that include mobile journalists, or mojos, crowdsourcing and a team of watchdog citizens.

The other two finalists were the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for its sweeping newsroom reorganization and the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle for its data rich Web site RocDocs.

Editors at APME's annual conference in Washington, D.C., saw videos from all of the finalists summarizing their innovations and heard representatives explain the changes and their impact. The editors then voted electronically for their favorites, and the votes were tabulated instantly.

APME's first Innovator of the Year Contest attracted 44 entries from 40 newspapers of all circulation sizes. Innovations in print, online, marketing and structure were submitted. Four current and former APME members reviewed all of the entries and selected the three finalists.