YourObserver.com wins national award

YourObserver.com, The Observer Group’s website, was recognized as one of the top websites from community and suburban newspapers across North America in the Suburban Newspapers of America’s 2010 Community Website Contest. YourObserver.com placed first for “Best Site Architecture and Overall Design” in its class of non-daily newspapers with a total circulation of 100,000 or under.

Judges commented that they were pleased with the design of the site and the color scheme used throughout. They also noted, “The use of whitespace is refreshing and makes for a clean design. The site is easy to navigate and very user-friendly.”

YourObserver.com was created by atLarge Inc., of Sarasota. atLarge plans, designs, builds and markets websites, applications, social media strategies and online advertising campaigns. Founded in 2004, atLarge has produced websites for a range of companies in addition to The Observer, such as ActionQuest, Detroit Regional Chamber, Ford Motor Company, IMG Academies, METI, Ringling College of Art and Design, Ruth Eckerd Hall, Sarasota Convention & Visitors Bureau and Summit Hotels.

First launched in 2006 as a website dedicated purely to The Observer’s Black Tie social coverage, YourObserver.com was expanded in May 2009 to include daily and breaking news, photos and more interactive features from all three of The Observer’s publications: The Longboat Observer, The East County Observer and The Sarasota Observer. Since the expansion, YourObserver.com’s traffic has increased more than 100%.

Suburban Newspapers of America (SNA) represents more than 2,000 daily and weekly suburban and community newspapers published by some of the leading newspaper publishing companies in North America.