For the second time in less than a year, Next Door Media has been honored with a prestigious national journalism award. The network’s neighborhood site PhinneyWood.com won the national Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists for deadline reporting.

PhinneyWood provided around-the-clock coverage of the series of devastating Greenwood arson fires last October, routinely breaking new developments in one of Seattle’s biggest stories of the year. Coverage included minute-by-minute updates posted on PhinneyWood and Twitter, as well as photos, video and an interactive map of the arsonist’s trail of destruction.

After the fires, PhinneyWood provided dozens of stories on the community outpouring and efforts by burned-out businesses to recover. Last week the suspect in the case admitted to 11 counts of arson.

In many ways, the award belongs to the neighborhood of Greenwood itself. Neighbors helped provide PhinneyWood with a steady stream of tips, comments and tweets. When combined with on-the-scene coverage from Next Door Media’s journalists, PhinneyWood became the community’s leading source for the latest information on a story that riveted the neighborhood.

PhinneyWood is edited by Doree Armstrong and Dale Steinke. The site launched in May 2008, serving both the Phinney Ridge and Greenwood neighborhoods.

This is Next Door Media’s second national journalism award in the last year. MyBallard.com won a national Online Journalism Award last October for community collaboration, beating several large metro newspapers for the honor.

Next Door Media is Seattle’s fastest-growing news organization and the most honored neighborhood news startup in the country. Committed to a community-powered model of news and a sustainable business model, Next Door Media operates 9 sites in North Seattle edited by a team of experienced journalists who live in the neighborhoods they serve.