Lawrence.com has been honored again as one of the best-designed Web sites in the country.

The local arts and culture online magazine, which is owned by The World Company, won an EPpy Award on Friday from Editor & Publisher and Mediaweek at the annual Interactive Media Conference and Trade Show in Las Vegas.

The lawrence.com EPpy was for “Best Overall Design of an Internet Service under 1 million unique monthly visitors.”

Friday’s honor is the second major design award lawrence.com has won this year. In February, lawrence.com received Edgie Awards from the Newspaper Association of America’s New Media Federation for being the best entertainment site among newspapers 50,000 circulation or less and was ranked first for best design and site architecture.

Dan Cox, World Online’s director, and staff member David Ryan were in Las Vegas to accept the awards. Cox said several EPpy Awards were also awarded Friday to Web sites that use development tools created by World Online’s staff in Lawrence.

Those tools are the Ellington Web publishing system and the open-source Django Web application framework.

Sites winning EPpy Awards that use Ellington include NaplesNews.com and TexasGigs.com.

The Washington Post’s Congressional Vote Database, which is Django-powered, also won an EPpy, Cox said.

EPpy awards were presented in 32 different categories for excellence in online media, both for design and for content.

Two Journal-World Web sites, ljworld.com and KUSports.com, which are also owned by The World Company, were finalists for 2006 EPpy awards.

“First, we’re very proud of Dan Cox and his team for their accomplishments. We’re extremely gratified at the continued international recognition of the quality of all our Web sites, and we’re extremely pleased that the hard work and dedication of our World Online team has earned this honor,” said Ralph Gage, chief operating officer for The World Company.

“It’s also fantastic to realize that the custom software that our team has developed has shown its merits in helping other Web sites earn awards.

“All we can say to our innovative and creative team is, ‘Good job!’ And I hope the community recognizes that no other paper the size of the Journal-World, and no other community the size of Lawrence is represented among the award-winners. These honors are a reflection of the company’s commitment to excellence and to the resources it dedicates to serving our community.”