As one of a growing handful of online-only magazines in Canada, Orato was excited when Masthead Magazine announced its first annual Canadian Online Publishing Awards.

(Update Sept 15: finalists have been announced. Congrats to all the nominees!)

The awards, to be presented in Toronto on October 26, will recognize everything from Web design to multimedia features, online community, blogs and e-newsletters—10 categories in total, with separate judging for consumer and trade publications.

It’s a great boon to Canadian magazines that have been doing impressive online work for many years, and particularly valuable recognition for newer online-only magazines that have struggled to carve themselves a piece of the pie in an industry still focused mainly on print (though that is shifting rapidly of late).

With judging taking place this month, Orato Managing Editor Lisa Manfield and Publisher/Editor-in-Chief Joy Gugeler were delighted to be asked to sit on two panels for the Best e-Newsletter and Best Overall Website respectively. Not only were we encouraged by the sheer volume of entries, but we were also inspired by some of the creative and well-executed online strategies from magazines big and small across the country.

And we’re looking forward to the unveiling of winners in Toronto this fall. Good luck to all who entered!

Orato is honoured to be among the first-round of selected panellists for the 2010 South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Conference, which takes place March 12-16, 2010 in Austin, Texas.

But with 2,212 other panel proposals up for consideration, we’re going to need your help to make the final cut.

Cast a Vote for Orato at SXSW

SXSW has invited the public to help it narrow down potential panellists for this world-renowned event. Public votes will count toward 30% of the final decision, with staff votes counting for 30% and the SXSW advisory board counting for 40%.

SXSW’s interactive panel picker lists all the panels up for consideration, with expandable description boxes and options to sort by company and category among others.

Make Friends with Cannibals Partners Print and Pixels

Orato’s panel, entitled Make Friends with Cannibals: Linking Print & Online Publishers, details the opportunities that exist for partnerships between online magazines and book publishers with limited online profile.

“Book publishers have titles and expert writers, but lose to discounts, returns, a short shelf life, fewer booksellers and poor search results. Online sites have good software, SEO and design, but lack high-quality content to draw readers and advertisers. This business model revives both industries by sharing content but preserving format, brand, and sales for a win-win second revenue stream for publishers and writers.”

Orato’s Editor-in-Chief Joy Gugeler, with 12 years’ experience in book publishing and 4 with online magazines, has a vision to marry paper and pixels, and unite readers of books and magazines online, all the while increasing profile for publisher partners.

With your vote, we’re hoping she can share this vision in Texas next spring. Simply set up an account on the site (a simple two-minute process) and click the thumbs up sign next to the panel title. The interactive panel picker closes September 4.

Thanks for your vote, and we hope to see you in Texas!