ASBPE Announces Awards for Trade Publications

Posted on July 11, 2003

The American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE) honored Boston-based CFO magazine and Loveland, Colorado-based SQL Server as Magazines of the Year in the over-80,000- and under-80,000-circulation divisions. ASBPE presented awards in 37 editorial, design, and Web categories. Winners came from more than 2,250 entries, including 117 competitors for Magazine of the Year. The presentations were made as part of ASBPE's annual editorial conference. Complete information about the awards and the Lifetime Achievement Award winner, Dana Chase, Jr., editorial director of Appliance magazine, can be found at asbpe.org.

This year, coverage of corporate finance scandals and reforms, and information-technology and corporate-security themes, dominated the gold-award winning. CFO and its CFO IT quarterly spin-off, published by The Economist Group, together won six gold awards, while magazines or websites that are part of IDG Communications -- Bio-IT World, CIO, CSO, Computerworld, Macworld and PC World -- won 13 golds. For overall Web publication, the winner was Variety.com. The gold awards for best new publication went to Replacement Contractor in the over-80,000 division, and to Chief Learning Officer among under-80,000 magazines.

CFO's reporting growing out of the scandals "was tough on CFOs ... they pulled no punches ... strong and not apologist," the judges said. CFO's 450,000 subscribers are senior executives with finance responsibilities. SQL Server, a Penton Media publication that covers the Microsoft ".net" community, "does a superb job for its audience," with strength that "goes far beyond the magazine's content," according to the judges.

"Business and trade publications in general were deeply involved in covering the big issues of 2002 from their industry perspectives," said Robert Freedman, president of ASBPE and a senior editor for Washington-based Realtor magazine. "The outstanding work our winners did proved again that trade magazines make a huge contribution to American journalism."

Magazine of the Year honorable mention went to CSO and American Demographics in the under-80,000 circulation division and to CIO and Industry Week in the 80,000-and-over division.

Other magazines winning gold editorial or Web awards included ABA Journal, Association Meetings, Baseline, Big Builder, BusinessWeek, Catalog Age, CIO Insight, Control, Control Engineering, CRN, Federal Computer Week, Fleet Owner, Florida Trend, Government Executive, Government Computer News, Macworld, Millimeter, National Real Estate Investor, Network Computing, Overdrive, PCT-Pest Control Technology, Pensions & Investments, Presentations, Professional Remodeler, Realtor Magazine, Remodeling, Restaurants and Institutions, Sensors, Strategic Finance, Success In Home Care, Transport Topics, Trustee, US Banker, VAR Business, Wall Street & Technology, Ward's Autoworld, and Workforce.

ASBPE is a professional and educational resource for trade and association publication editors. The society is known for its annual Awards of Excellence in editorial, design, and websites, as well as its annual business publication editorial conference. ASBPE currently has chapters in 17 cities, which host meetings and provide professional guidance to editors at the local level. The society sponsors an annual scholarship for young editors, conducts salary surveys on numerous editorial-related topics, and holds regional conferences.