Xt3.com Named Best Website for a Publication

The social network of the Archdiocese of Sydney xt3.com was named Best Website for a Publication at the annual Australian Catholic Press Association Awards for Excellence in Adelaide last night.

The judges' comments said; "Xt3 is an outstanding website that is not only a stand-out amongst the entries or within the wider Catholic landscape. It would be a winner within any web competition anywhere in the world. The team behind Xt3 are to be congratulated for an outstanding website that embraces all that is great about the web. On joining the site I received a personal message from one of the volunteers welcoming me to the community. That is a WOW factor: Xt3 is by far the winner and deserves the highest accolades."

Designed for World Youth Day Sydney in 2008, Xt3 developed into a content-driven inter-active social network which now has in excess of 65,000 members.

Directed towards 18-35 year olds, Xt3 is already one of the highest ranking social Catholic media networks in the world – and still one of the fastest growing.

The Xt3 website includes regularly updated news and features; a multi-media research library; the popular Ask a Priest forum; Events Calendar; discussion groups and chat threads as well as the very popular video blogs of major events.

A religious educational resource has also been developed by Xt3 called iFaith, which is being used by senior secondary students.

Also Xt3 highlights can be seen on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, iTunes and mobile phones. This means members can share resources through their personal social networking channels.

The Xt3 network took live streaming on the net to a whole new level when it was the first website to stream live a Vatican event – the handing over of the WYD Cross and Icon in Rome in 2009.

Since then Xt3 has not only streamed live Midnight Christmas Mass from St Mary's Cathedral and Ordinations but also enormously popular hostings for international events including the Canonisation of Mary MacKillop, the Beatification of John Paul 11 and World Youth Day Madrid last month. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world clicked on to Xt3 for these events.

Often Xt3 will collaborate with other leading international Catholic websites including Rome Reports, Salt & Light Television as well as the Vatican websites.

An Xt3 newsletter featuring headline news from around the world is also distributed weekly to more than 50,000 subscribers.

Future plans include the live webcast of the official opening of Domus Australia in Rome, next month, which is an initiative of the Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell which is a pilgrim house for visiting Australians.

Xt3 will soon be releasing an iphone app while plans are also underway for a Catholic music hub and other exciting internet developments.

The awards presentation was a highlight of the ACPA conference in Adelaide which was attended by 56 delegates from around Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. Guest speaker and Presenter at the awards was General Peter Cosgrove AC, Chancellor Australian Catholic University.
Other award winners included The Southern Cross (Best News Story); The Catholic Weekly of the Archdiocese of Sydney (Best Headline); (About Catholic Schools (Best Editorial Feature – Newspaper or Magazine);Catholic Outlook ( Best Advertising Feature/Supplement ).

This is the second year in a row the Archdiocese of Sydney's Catholic Communications Department has designed and built the winning website in this category.

"Xt3 is an integral part of Catholic Communications and we feel privileged to be amongst the ACPA award winners," the Director of Catholic Communications, Katrina Lee, said today.

"The gathering and dissemination of Catholic news and events in Australia and New Zealand is very professional, diversified and I am sure of increasing value to those people keen to know what is happening in the Catholic Church here and abroad.

"Obviously it is important our vision is not narrow but we all have the responsibility to follow a pathway of truth and responsibility in reporting events.
"Today, with the rapid growth in digital media, we are confronted with a wider mix of challenging issues in the way we communicate and communication itself. But we cannot lose sight of the fact even within a digital hub human contact is vital.

"We would like to congratulate all the award winners, those Highly Commended and also those who may not have been mentioned last night but work very hard to bring everyone the Catholic viewpoint."

Ms Lee said she looks forward to additional digital media categories in future awards.