By Tom Embrey

Senior Writer

The Pilot capped another strong year by capturing eight awards at the 2010 North Carolina Press Association banquet Thursday at the Carolina Club in Chapel Hill.

Among its honors, The Pilot earned a first place for General Excellence for Web Sites and a third for General Excellence in the nondaily community category with circulation over 10,000.

"While we always appreciate the recognition from our peers, it is the input from our readers that we value most," said David Woronoff, publisher of The Pilot. "We will continue to strive to provide them with community-oriented content that they expect from us."

The judge praised the Pilot's website.

"Great looking interactive website, with something for everyone," the judge said. "Good mix of locally produced videos, photo galleries, staff blogs, opinion poll and letters to the editor displayed out on the front page."

Editor Steve Bouser said the awards were the products of a great deal of long-term effort on the part of the entire staff.

"I couldn't be prouder of Online Editor Hunter Chase, Mark Bamberry and the others involved in thepilot.com for bringing home the first-place award for general excellence," Bouser said of the website award. "That's the result of much hard work and daily dedication by a lot of people."

In overall General Excel-lence, the judge said The Pilot had "good substantive issues."

"Even at third place for general excellence, The Pilot newspaper beat out a lot of very good papers in North Carolina, which many consider the best newspaper state in the nation," Bouser said. "I'm proud of us."

Individually, Hannah Sharpe brought home three awards. She took a first place in the category for best video and a first and third in best multimedia project.

"Hannah blew us all away with three biggies, including two first-place honors," Bouser said. "She is a terrific asset, and we congratulate her."

Of Sharpe's video, "Academy of Moore Faces Closure," the judge said: "Good work in letting the faculty and students tell their their story. Good use of multiple sources."

The judge praised Sharpe's first-place multimedia project, "Doing Her Part," saying the story and video combination was "a great way to localize the BP oil spill, demonstrate how thoughtful Skylar Fielder-Jones was, and show online readers what Skylar really is about."

Sharpe's multimedia project, "Laughter Is the Best Medicine," won third place.

The Pilot staff also won second place for use of photographs, a third for news coverage and a third for special sections for its Sandhills Guide, produced by Special Sections Editor Martha Henderson.

"As I say every year, we don't put out the paper or put up the website to win awards, but it never hurts to be recognized by our fellow journalists," Bouser said. "I am very proud of our entire staff. It takes a devoted team effort daily to provide our community a top-notch website and newspaper."

There were more than 4,200 entries in this year's contest. Awards were presented in both daily and non-daily divisions.

Contact Tom Embrey at tembrey@thepilot.com.