YIR: AJT Wins First Place for Best Website

The Atlanta Jewish Times once again won Best Website at the American Jewish Press Association conference as part of the 42nd annual Simon Rockower Awards ceremony held July 11 at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.

According to the judges’ report: “The Atlanta Jewish Times has a polished, modern website. It is easy to navigate and follows many principles of good web design. Its social media, newsletter, and subscription links are displayed at the top, as they should be. Its latest news section includes timestamps, which is important for showing that the site is fresh. The events section includes two types of formats to attract reader interest.”

It’s relevant to note that most of the award categories included divisions based on the publications’ subscription totals, so that publications of relatively equal size can squarely compete against one another. However, the Best Website category included no divisions, as all eligible AJPA publications competed against one another, with the AJT’s website taking first place.

Get The AJT Newsletter by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

Associate editor and web editor Sasha Heller said, “We challenged ourselves last year to take an already great website and make it better. Now, the challenge is to repeat.”

Heller continued, “Having a viable website in today’s industry is essential for any publication. And it’s one of the reasons the AJT is successful … the website is just one part of our media footprint, along with our print editions, AJT Connector, Jewish Time podcasts, newsletters, and social media presence.”

Heller added that he feels the AJT’s site is popular because its sleek, modular design is tailored for mobile devices, but the user interface also works well on desktop computers. “It’s the best of both worlds and that’s important because roughly half of our website traffic comes from smartphones and tablets and half from desktop systems.”

AJT freelancers Jan Jaben-Eilon and Dave Schechter also won personal awards for their local reporting and editorial selections.

Since the Oct. 7 attack of Israel by Hamas, the AJT has dedicated ample space on its homepage for featured coverage of the war, both with locally sourced stories and editorials as well daily wire content from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Times of Israel.