CHICAGO, ILL. (June 7, 2013) —ASBPE has named Julia Homer its 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award winner. Homer created the editorial and design concepts in 1985 for a startup magazine called CFO, recognizing the changing role of the corporate finance executives just then starting to become vital drivers of American business. As chief financial officers began calling the shots on critical purchases — and serving as internal point people on mergers, acquisitions and divestitures — they often emerged as the most important company leader after the CEO. These finance whizzes found their own information source and voice in CFO magazine.
Homer dedicated herself to merging the specialized knowledge of B2B reporting with the production standards of general-circulation powerhouses such as Fortune and Forbes. The Mount Holyoke College graduate focused on drawing exceptional design, reporting, and editing talent to CFO’s Boston and New York offices. Over the years, many of the people she hired went on to top-level positions at consulting organizations, academic institutions and other media brands.
After CFO’s 1989 purchase by The Economist Group, Homer turned the publication into a global brand, helping to launch CFO Europe, CFO Asia and CFO China, as well as spin-offs such as Treasury and Risk Management, CFO IT, e-CFO, and CFO Human Capital. She pushed for the development of data-driven content, including scorecards, surveys and benchmarks targeting the finance department’s specific needs. She was instrumental in the development of the quarterly CFO/Duke Global Business Outlook Survey. By the time Homer left CFO Publishing in January 2012 as Executive Vice President, not only was her magazine “must” reading for nearly a half-million of the nation’s finance chiefs, but it had become the flagship of a powerful global brand encompassing both print and online publications, as well as well-respected conference and research divisions that have helped train new generations of corporate leaders.
CFO created a model across B2B publishing. It was ASBPE’s Magazine of the Year (1998 and 2003) and inaugural Multi-Platform Publication of the Year (2007). In total, CFO took 90 national Azbee Awards over a 15-year period, as well as four Folio awards as the year’s best business-and-finance publication. In 2010, Homer received a Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in executive management.
Before founding CFO, Homer worked as a science reporter. Since leaving CFO, she has returned to those roots, first serving as Project Manager and Development Editor for Nature Education and just recently accepting a position as Director of Communications at the New England Wildflower Society.
Homer is ASBPE’s first Lifetime Achievement Award-winner since 2008. She will be recognized at the 2013 Azbee Awards of Excellence banquet on July 26. The Azbee Awards is one of the most competitive contests for B2B, trade, association and professional publications. It recognizes outstanding work by magazines, newsletters and digital media: websites, e-newsletters, digital magazines and blogs.
The Azbee celebration will take place following the ASBPE National Editorial Conference at the Grotto in Oak Brook, Ill., a suburb of Chicago. For more information or to register to attend the 2013 ASBPE National Editorial Conference and/or Azbee Awards of Excellence banquet, click here.
Founded in 1964 as the American Society of Business Press Editors, ASBPE is the professional association for full-time and freelance editors, writers, art directors, and designers employed in the business, trade, and specialty press. The official name was changed to the American Society of Business Publication Editors in 1997 and to ASBPE in 2012. ASBPE has chapters in cities nationwide, including Chicago, Boston, New York, Kansas City, Cleveland and Washington, D.C.