ASBPE Announces 2004 Award Winners

Adam Minter receives society’s first Stephen Barr Award for feature writing for Scrap magazine series on China’s recycling industry.
Philadelphia (June 25, 2004) Computerworld and CSO magazine, a publication for corporate security officers, were named the large- and small-circulation 2004 Magazines of the Year by the American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE) at its national conference here.
ASBPE also awarded the first Stephen Barr Award, honoring the year’s best feature writing in the business press, to Shanghai-based freelancer Adam Minter for his three-part Scrap magazine series on the burgeoning scrap industry in China.
The Magazine of the Year honors to Computerworld and CSO, both publications of International Data Group of Framingham, Mass., topped the list of 2004 awards presented by ASBPE in the largest annual editorial and design competition among business publications.
Judges called Computerworld a “cutting edge” magazine with great design and typography, while CSO was called a “strong voice for people who have challenging jobs.”
The awards ceremony was held at ASBPE’s annual conference at the Sofitel Hotel in Philadelphia on June 24.

Magazine of the Year Honorable Mentions

CIO and Overdrive magazines received honorable mentions for Magazine of the Year in the 80,000-or-more circulation category. Rounding out the top 10 were Builder, CFO, Government Computer News, Network Computing, Network Magazine, PC World, and VARBusiness.
Meetings & Conventions and Custom Home magazines received honorable mentions in the under-80,000 category. The rest of the top 10 were Bloomberg Wealth Manager, CIO Insight, DC Velocity, Health Leaders, Replacement Contractor, Residential Architect, and Strategic Finance.

Editorial and Design Awards

Business security issues dominated the individual awards this year. In the 80,000-and-over circulation category, PC Magazine won for best feature article for a story on computer security, while among smaller magazines, Information Security magazine won for its piece, “Trustworthy Yet?” about Microsoft Inc.’s security efforts.
Network Computing and VARBusiness won two cover design awards among large magazines. Among smaller publications, Promo won two top awards for design.
The top overall Web publication awards went to PCMag.com and BusinessWeek Online.

Stephen Barr Award

The Stephen Barr Award is named for a senior contributing editor of CFO magazine who died in 2002 at 43 years of age. Minter, its winner is a 33-year-old University of Chicago graduate who has also written in recent months for The Wall Street Journal and the Far Eastern Economic Review, among other publications. His series in Scrap, a Washington-based publication for the recycling industry, detailed the sudden rise of China’s role in the business. Besides analyzing the economics involved, Minter looked closely at such elements as living conditions of workers and the black market for scrap there.
Judges for the award, which was endowed by Stephen Barr’s family, called the series “fascinating and surprising.” Said one judge: “Authoritative and beautifully structured, it leads the reader by the hand elegantly through a very complex subject.” Stephen Barr Award judges were George Gendron, former editor of Inc. magazine; Lou Ureneck, visiting professor of journalism at Boston University and head of its Business and Economics Journalism Program; and Roy Harris, senior editor of CFO.
National and regional awards were given in 39 editorial and design categories with more than 50 judges evaluating 2,457 entries. To find out the winners in the other categories, please go to www.asbpe.org.
About ASBPE:
Founded in 1964 and based in Naperville, Ill., ASBPE (www.asbpe.org) is a professional and educational resource for editors of business, trade, association, and professional magazines and newsletters and their associated Internet publications. The society is widely known for its annual Awards of Excellence in editorial and design, 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. ASBPE’s Web site features a popular job posting area, along with a members-only section.
Unlike other magazine associations, ASBPE is a professional society exclusively for business publication editors. Its focus is to help editors develop skills, especially editorial management skills, that will enhance their performance and that will prepare them to play larger roles in their publishing organization.