WATERLOO - The Courier won two awards for its Web site in the Suburban Newspapers of America's 2007 Local Community Web site Contest.

The Courier was in competition with newspapers from across the country. Judging was overseen by the American Press Institute, who selected experts in the area of interactive media to judge the individual sites.

The Courier won a second-place award in its circulation class in the Best Multimedia Initiative for its use of video and slideshows on the Web site, wcfcourier.com.

Judges were impressed with the overall amount and variety of content in the multimedia section.

In addition, The Courier won a third place award in the Best Local Community Web site category for its circulation class.

Judges wrote that the "Cedar Valley is well-served by this Web site. This third-place entry makes a clean sweep for Lee Enterprises in first, second and third places finishes for this category.

"These awards for excellence of WCFCourier.com is the result of the hard work of our news and online teams who work 24/7 to bring timely information to our Cedar Valley audience," said Nancy Green, Courier publisher.

Sioux City Journal and The Pantagraph out of Bloomington-Normal, Ill., placed first and second, respectively, in the same category.

The Sioux City Journal also won Web site of the Year for its circulation class.

The SNA said that Lee Enterprises, which owns The Courier, dominated the competition with 16 total awards.