FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Judie Mulligan, mulligaj@fleishman.com
Fleishman-Hillard Public Relations, 415.356.1086
SWEEPS AND SURPRISES HIGHLIGHT 1999 WEBBY AWARDS AS WINNERS CELEBRATE IN SAN FRANCISCO
More than
3,000 Digerati Attend Glittering The Webby Awards
San Francisco
(March 19, 1999) – More than 3,000 online luminaries turned out to honor
their own at last night’s third annual Webby Awards, where 22 spiraled
silver statuettes were handed out to the masterminds behind 1998’s best
Web sites in categories ranging from Arts to Weird.
An awards
sweep and a few surprises highlighted the ceremony as winners were called
onstage for the Webby Awards’ now-famous five-word acceptance speech.
Among the
honorees: Web powerhouse Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com, which swept
the awards with wins in both Commerce and Technological Achievement. Its
London-based affiliate, Internet Movie Database http://www.imdb.com, nabbed
Best Film Site for the third year in a row, a feat matched only by three-time
Best Print & Zines Site winner Salon Magazine http://www.salonmagazine.com.
Internet
Movie Database also took honors in the People’s Voice Awards, chosen by
more than 100,000 individual Internet users who registered to vote at
The Webby Awards site. Several other sites earned dual accolades, including
The Motley Fool http://www.fool.com (Best Finance Site), The Onion http://www.theonion.com
(Best Humor Site), CNN Interactive http://www.cnn.com (Best News Site),
and PBS Online http://www.pbs.org (Best TV Site).
Repeat winners
from last year included BabyCenter http://www.babycenter.com (Best Living
Site), Exploratorium http://www.exploratorium.edu (Best Science Site),
and PBS Online http://www.pbs.org (Best TV Site). Superbad.com http://www.superbad.com
won Best Weird Site, a perennial favorite category of the crowd.
This year’s
select panel of 220 judges included musician and Internet innovator David
Bowie, film director Francis Ford Coppola, “X-Files” star Gillian Anderson,
Dilbert creator Scott Adams, Talk Media chairwoman Tina Brown, Inside
Edition’s Deborah Norville, and political doyenne Arianna Huffington.
For the first time this year, PriceWaterhouseCoopers audited the Webby
Awards balloting process.
“This was
the year the Internet became an everyday phenomenon, and the range of
winners this year reflects that,” said Tiffany Shlain, Producer and Creative
Director of The Webby Awards. “Looking down the list, you realize the
Web is now part of the fabric of our culture, our commerce, even our relationships
with each other. And we’re incredibly proud to honor the people who have
helped make it such a wonderful place to live.”
In keeping
with this year’s dress theme, the top movers and shakers in cyber-culture,
entertainment, media, and politics showed up at San Francisco’s Herbst
Theater in their “spiffiest” attire. The ceremony was presided over by
Marc Maron, “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” regular and the star of several
Comedy Central and HBO comedy specials, who entertained the audience with
his “twisted” sense of humor.
The Webby
Awards were viewed online around the globe via a live Webcast. After the
gala event, winners, nominees, judges, guests, and friends rubbed elbows
at the post-ceremony bash in San Francisco’s breathtaking, newly-renovated
City Hall. Trailblazing multimedia artists Emergency Broadcast Network
(EBN), a headliner on the ABSOLUT DJ tour, took the stage and were followed
by funk/hip-hop recording stars G. Love & Special Sauce.
About The Webby Awards and The International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences
The Webby
Awards are the leading creative honors for digital media. Nominees and
winners are chosen by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences,
a global organization dedicated to the creative, technical, and professional
progress of new media. The Webby Awards are an IDG event. The VIP pre-party
is co-hosted by PricewaterhouseCoopers and Hewlett Packard. Intel is the
exclusive sponsor of the post-ceremony party. The Webby Awards ceremony
is sponsored by vivid studio, Levi Strauss & Co., AboveNet, Time Magazine
(The Digital supplement), Entertainment Weekly, ABSOLUT VODKA, BroadVision,
Access Magazine, AdForce, NaviSite, The Motley Fool, VISA, The Menlo Technology
Group, Hotel Triton, The Industry Standard, LinkExchange, TipWorld, PC
World, ARTBYTE, Alice 97.3 (CBS affiliate), and San Francisco Bay Guardian.
For more information, visit http://www.webbyawards.com.