I got yesterday the first suggestions from a Polish editor:
“Here is Grzegorz Piechota from Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland.
I read you blog and found an invitation to send you some tips about candidates for *Newspapers of the Year* title.
You must have heard about the Bakersfield Californian, an independent family-owned local media company in California*s Central Valley. Thier publisher is open-minded and understands the importance of innovation and a focus on long-term growth rather than quarterly earnings.
Despite they are traditional US newspaper publisher (and you know better than me that US newspaers are the most boring in the world), they do really great job in print and on the web. Their goal is not to sell ink on dead trees, but to create and inform communities they serve. They launched two home delivered free newspapers based on readers’ stories and photos linked with websites (http://www.northwestvoice.com/). They have numerous websites that serve as YouTubes, MySpaces and Craig’s Lists of the community (http://www.bakotopia.com/). You can learn more about them for example here: http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/060808reed/
If you would like to dig deeper, please log in to Bluffton Today, an even smaller newspaper in South Carolina (http://www.blufftontoday.com/). Totaly free for all 15,000 inhabitants. Their paper and website are linked together in 100%, however the whole website is organised like a blog. Great local stories provided by both journalists and readers. They are owned by Morris Communications. I have found their presentation at one of the last events of Newspaper Association of America; it was really inspiring.
I understand they are both tiny local newspapers, much smaller than all the others you nominated, a kind of papers that are rarely visible at large international newspaper conferences like WAN’s one. But on the other hand they are the most Web 2.0 newspapers I know in the world, much more newspaper-like products than exaggerated OhMyNews and maybe they can become even a sort of a model for Newspapers 2.0?
As you always says, it is about innovation, isn’t it?
Even if you don’t decide to name them *Newspapers of the Year*, maybe they show interesting examples in the industry for your annual report.”
Thanks for your suggestions!