NEW YORK — Region I director Neal Scarbrough accepted the Internets highest journalism honor this past weekend when ESPN.com won the Online Journalism Award (OJA) for General Excellence in Online Journalism.

The award honors the site that most successfully fulfills its editorial mission, effectively serves its audience, maximizes the unique abilities of the Web and presents the highest journalistic standards. Presented by the Online News Association and the USC Annenberg School of Communication, the fourth annual Online Journalism Awards were presented Saturday at a ceremony in Evanston, Ill. ESPN.com was also named a finalist for this award in 2002.

ESPN.com was nominated in the category of affiliated sites sites owned by or partnered with other media organizations with more than 200,000 unique visitors per month. Joining ESPN.com as finalists were The New York Times on the Web, The Wall Street Journal Online and BBC News Online.

This honor is truly a great moment for all of us here at ESPN.com, said Vice President and Editor-in-Chief Neal Scarbrough, an NABJ member since 1986, Our staff is dedicated to producing simply the best sports journalism found online, and we will continue to work hard and raise the bar even higher.