BBC just beaten by New York Times in Webby award nominations

The BBC has managed nine nominations in the 14th annual Webby Awards, coming in just behind The New York Times, which received 15. (Full list of nominations here).

Other UK nominations for the US-based online publishing awards include www.guardian.co.uk which was shortlisted for “news” and “best practices” as well as in the religion and spirituality section for the Belief section of its blog Comment Is Free.

Other multiple nominees include US satirical news website Onion with six, Funny or die with five nominations and National Public Radio which also received five nominations.

Amongst its nominations the BBC has been put forward in the best politics site category for the BBC Democracy live site, the World Service received a nomination for best podcast provider for its multi-lingual service. BBC blast is nominated in the youth site category and lonely planet.com , which is also owned by the corporation, was nominated for best travel website.

Academy judges including the likes of Martha Stewart, David Bowie and Arianna Huffington will choose the Webby Award winners who will be announced in an award ceremony in New York in June. Millions of web users will also have their chance to vote in the Webby people’s choice awards until the 29 April.

All the winners will be expected to give a five word acceptance speech, in a tradition honoured by past winners including Al Gore (“please don’t recount this vote”). The ceremony will be broadcast on The Webby Awards YouTube channel on 14 June.