PCANZ website wins award

The Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand has had its website recognised at the Australasian Religious Press Association (ARPA) awards.

ARPA, which draws its membership from 82 denominational and general interest Christian publications from throughout Australia and New Zealand, held its conference in late August in Brisbane. ARPA’s annual awards recognise excellence in Christian magazines, newspapers and electronic publications including websites and blogs.

The Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand was awarded Silver in the best website category for www.presbyterian.org.nz. The judges chose to only make two awards in this category and said of the PCANZ website: “Simple to use, with a clean modern layout. The ‘Find something fast’ button is a novel approach to the standard menu bar. News is easy to find and simply laid out. There is a comprehensive main menu at the bottom which takes the reader to a wealth of background material about the Church as well as relevant documents for church members. 

“The best modern news websites are opting for simple design, eye-catching photos and videos, clever headlines and routinely updated content. Menus are easily accessible and intuitive for new and regular users. And the sites themselves are optimised for use by all kinds of devices. What’s more, they can be easily found by a search engine because they have relevant metadata. Unfortunately some of the entrants this year fall well short of this, but two websites stood out.”

The Presbyterian Church has previously won ARPA awards for Spanz magazine and the Church’s website including: 2013 Bronze award for best article (Spanz); 2011 Gold award for the PCANZ website www.presbyterian.org.nz; 2010 Bronze award for best story on social justice (Spanz); 2009 highly commended in the best website category and highly commended in the most improved magazine category (Spanz); 2008 Silver award most improved publication (Spanz); 2006 highly commended in the best website category and highly commended in the most improved magazine category (Spanz).