Competition and collegial cooperation

Here's the list of ONA award winners. I'm always pleased for the winners being rewarded for their hard work and good journalism, but I was especially gratified to see the Chauncey Bailey Project take home two big awards. That project, in which news organizations and journalism schools around the Bay Area united to investigate the assassination of a crusading African-American columnist - with the significant result of, well, justice - is what we got into business to do: reveal the truth, no matter what.
But as always, I can't wait until our site is in the running for the big awards - OK so I'm competitive that way. (Though I don't want the county to have to catch fire again for us to be a contender.)
I do think our redesign is going to help distinguish us from the pack.
On a less competitive note, I really enjoyed talking with my counterparts around the country on the stuff I obsess about all the time.
Last night at the bar, after the awards banquet, one topic with new friends from SF Gate was the problems we all have with the sometimes horrible content in anonymous comments. We exchanged some ideas, reached no solution, but got to exchange our experiences and commisserate.
We're all it the same trench, fighting the same fight, and it's great to have this opportunity to share lessons - and battle plans.
Battle plans may be too strong a phrase because I know online news will ultimately prove to be a lucrative trade. We just have to keep working on the how.
The why - that society needs a healthy and free media, to do the sort of thing the Chauncey Bailey Project did - has long been crystal clear.