“Mining’s Legacy: A Scar on Kansas,” a series of stories and information presented by the Journal-World, Sunflower Broadband and LJWorld.com, has been honored by the Associated Press Managing Editors as one of the nation’s best pieces of online journalism in 2007.

The APME announced Friday that the series had won its online convergence award.

“The series was a group effort that we believe brought a little-told story to a wider audience,” said Joel Mathis, managing editor for convergence. “We’re grateful for the recognition.”

The series looked at how Cherokee and Crawford counties struggle – economically and environmentally – decades after the mining industry went dormant there.

Journal-World photo director Thad Allender and reporter Mike Belt teamed up with Free State Studios producer Brian Powell and “River City Weekly” host Greg Hurd to report the series. The Web site included video interviews with key players and southeast Kansas residents, audio panoramas depicting the affected sites and many other features.

The stories were edited by Journal-World managing editor Dennis Anderson and Karrey Britt, assistant assignment director. Karl Gehring created graphics. The Web site was crafted by Mediaphormedia’s David Ryan, online editorial projects manager, and Nathan Borror, a senior designer.

The Journal-World, Free State Studios and Mediaphormedia are all owned by The World Company.

After the series ran in March, U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and U.S. Rep. Nancy Boyda, D-Kan., announced in June that they were working on a bill to provide federal relief to the area.

The mining project can be found at www2.ljworld.com/news/mining.

Other winners of the APME online convergence report were The Washington Post, for its series on “Being a Black Man,” and The Roanoke (Va.) Times, for its coverage of the Virginia Tech campus shootings.

APME, an association of editors at 1,500 AP member newspapers in the United States and the Canadian Press in Canada, recognizes journalism excellence with annual awards in four categories. This year’s winners were selected during a meeting of the association’s board of directors that ended Monday in New York. The awards will be presented during the group’s annual conference Oct. 3-6 in Washington, D.C.