March 19, 1999
Web posted at: 5:05 a.m. EST (1005 GMT)

From CNN San Francisco Bureau Chief Greg Lefevre

SAN FRANCISCO (CNN) -- CNN Interactive was a double winner in the third annual Webby Awards Thursday night, an industry program to honor the best of the sites on the Internet.

The Atlanta-based Web site won for best in the news category as determined by a panel of Internet industry judges. It won the same category in the People's Voice division decided by votes solicited from Internet users worldwide.

Other nominees in the category were BBC News Online, Rough and Tumble, The New York Times and MSNBC.

Tiffany Shlain, Executive Producer of the Webby Awards called the evening a success.

"People value the award but we're also having so much fun. No one is taking themselves too seriously. I think that's what the Web is about in many ways and it's amazing to see this really grow," she said.

Once prowled by academicians and computer nuts, the Internet, she said, is now everyone's place.

Woelfel, left, and CNN Interactive Chief Systems Engineer Sam Gassel

"The press likes to think it's really this nerdy 22-year-old guy, but you saw from our winners they're all different age groups. They're all different types of people. There's non-profits. There's commercial. Big teams. Little teams. And that's the Web."

Scott Woelfel, Editor in Chief of CNN Interactive was thrilled with the win. "The competition was very tough. We're just thrilled to win. Obviously we've a note with people and we want to keep on hitting that note."

CNN Interactive was launched in 1995 and is on track to serve more than 7 billion pages to viewers on the Internet this year.

Other winners included the Motley Fool in the finance category, The Onion in the humor category and Exploratorium in the science category.

The online magazine category was won by Salon.

About 1,000 Web enthusiasts crowded into the historic Herbst Theater in San Francisco's renovated Civic Center for the awards.

As a hint of the Web's counterculture, the award ceremony's F house rules included a limit on acceptance speeches to just five words.

Woelfel's words were, "Who, What, When, Where, Webby."

The awards were sponsored by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.

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