Horse & Hound’s editorial team has been nominated for the prestigious ‘Editorial Team, Consumer’ award by the Association of Online Publishers (AOP).
This is the first time that the website has been acknowledged in the annual industry awards, but it comes as no surprise to H&H website editor Carol Phillips.
“I am delighted we have been short-listed for this award as the whole editorial team have worked extremely hard to produce consistently excellent content during the past year, alongside publishing the only equestrian weekly magazine in the market,” she explains.
“The website attracts more than 300,000 very loyal unique users every month who view up to 10 million pages, which are fantastic figures for such a niche market.”
Highlights from the past year have included live coverage from the European dressage championships at Windsor, web chats with top riders and experts and the launch of the H&H Shop.
The site’s internationally respected news service also had a great year, with H&H head of news Abigail Butcher breaking the news that the FEI intended to allow horses to compete on pain killers. The outrage was immediate and Horseandhound.co.uk became the place to follow the story as it developed, until the FEI bowed to pressure and reviewed their decision.
Horse & Hound is up against stiff competition in the shape of departments from the Guardian and BBC amongst others, but the H&H team is feeling hopeful about their chances.
“We may not have the prestige or the budget of the BBC and the broadsheets, but we are passionate about what we do and we know how to produce the very best content that keeps our users coming back for more,” added Carol .
The winners of the AOP Awards will be announced at the Awards dinner, on 10 June 2010 at The Roundhouse in Camden, London.
