Rick Crotts, Schuana Wright and Michael Dabrowa.

The CoxNet award is for the newsroom that cooperates the most with others, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s News Art group set a standard for shared effort in 2001.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, it established a network with other Cox graphics departments to help avoid duplication of work and to make available informative graphics to other Cox papers, especially those with limited news art resources.

The AJC posted its graphics budget at noon and 5 p.m. daily to let the other Cox papers know what war-related material was in the works.

These graphics were posted daily on the CoxNet server. Also, the department began a weekly conference call with other Cox papers to talk about what each paper was working on and what was in the pipeline.

These sessions also greatly promoted brainstorming.

When the United States retaliated Oct. 7, Cox papers such as the Waco Tribune-Herald and the Elizabeth City Daily Advance used the AJC’s attack graphic on Afghanistan as their lead art.

	Judges' Comments
	"The staff’s work reflect a lasting benefit to the spirit of sharing fostered by CoxNet."

The AJC also produced an interactive Flash graphic on the first 100 days since the Sept. 11 attack. This was posted on ajc.com and the Austin American-Statesman linked to the graphic on ajc.com.

News Art also has posted numerous graphics for the 2001 presidential election; 2001 presidential inauguration; and 2002 Salt Lake City
Olympics.

In addition, a full-page Harry Potter explainer was tied to the release of the popular movie. The department also has prepared some advance-obit pages.

Rick Crotts, Atlanta’s presentation editor, is a native of Sarasota and a graduate of the University of Florida with a degree in journalism.

He was Sports design desk manager for the Journal-Constitution from 1995 to 2000, when he moved to his current position.