AWARDS: Finalists are unveiled for online design

The annual SNDies finalists have been announced! The judges have narrowed the field down to a suprisingly small number that make the cut, especially given the volume of entries out there and the move so many newspapers have made into multimedia in the last year. One judge told me that while she saw ambitious work on many levels, she believed the pieces needs a more rigorous edit. "I was astonished that there was not better restraint," she said. "Most of these things can and should have been shorter." No kidding? Well, it looks like the new media needs to be approached with the same care for time and tolerance as the old print product. Take a click on over to the site for a review of the stuff that stood out this year. It's some wildly interactive work. Note: The top winners will be announced at the annual awards gala on Saturday night.

RELATED: The Online News Association has also announced its finalists for top prizes, which will be awarded at the annual ONA gathering in October. The SND International Web Desk wonders: Should SND and ONA get together? And if they did, would the result be SANDON? Sounds slightly tropical, and we like that ...