SearchColorado.com has been named the best online newspaper site in the nation in the under-75,000 circulation category by the Newspaper Association of America.

The Web site is the product of MCC's online services division and The Glenwood Post in Glenwood Springs, The Citizen Telegram in Rifle and The Eagle Valley Enterprise in Eagle.

It received NAA's New Media Federation's Digital Edge Award, or Edgie, in July during CONNECTIONS, NAA's electronic media conference at the Hilton Chicago and Towers Hotel.

Edgie Award judges praised SearchColorado's interactivity, colorful design and great features.

Rob Curley, MCC's manager of Internet content development, and Don Smith, publisher of The Glenwood Post and group publisher of MCC's Western Slope Publishing Group, accepted the award in Chicago.

The large-market winner of the 1999 Best Online Newspaper Site Edgie was The New York Times and the medium-market winner was the Times Union in Albany, N.Y.

SearchColorado.com is a collaborative effort that gives viewers one-click access to news and information from eight Western Colorado communities. Michael Romaner, director of MCC's online services division, said of the honor: "Needless to say, all of us are ecstatic. This is the third year in a row a Morris property won a first-in-nation Digital Edge Award.

"Please join me in congratulating Don Smith and Theresa Hamilton of Glenwood and Rob Curley and his staff for building this spectacular site. We are so proud."

In 1997, the Digital Edge Award was shared by MCC's division of online services and @ugusta, the online site of The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, in the Best Interactive Feature category for the AugustaGolf.com coverage of the Masters Tournament combining information of @ugusta and CNN/Sports Illustrated.

In 1998, @ugusta won the award in the Best Online Newspaper category (circulation 75,000 to 150,000). Much of the site was developed and is powered by products designed by the division of online services. NAA is a nonprofit organization representing the $54 billion newspaper industry and more than 2,000 newspapers in the U.S. and Canada.

Headquartered in Tysons Corner (Vienna), Va., the association focuses on six key strategic priorities that affect the newspaper industry collectively: marketing, public policy, diversity, industry development, newspaper operations and readership (added in February 1999). Information about NAA and the industry may also be found at the association's Web site, www.naa.org