Local B2B Mags, American City & County, Government Security, National Real Estate Investor, Rejuvenate and Waste Age, to be honored for ASBPE Azbee Awards
With a new slate of local officers, the four-year-old Atlanta chapter of the professional American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE; www.asbpe.org) will beef up its educational programs and services for local editors of business, trade, association, and digital business-to-business (b2b) publications.
Like its national counterpart, the chapter mission is primarily to help b2b editors do their work more effectively.
The first effort in this plan begins at an invitation-only event next month at which the chapter will honor and hear from the local winners of ASBPE’s national and regional Azbee awards. The highlight will be a presentation from the magazine Rejuvenate, a national winner in the new publication-editorial and new publication-design categories.
Other local magazines to be honored are American City & County, Government Security, National Real Estate Investor, and Waste Age.
The Azbees are the most competitive business-to-business publication awards competition in the country with typically more than 2,600 entries. The Society’s South-Central regional competition, of which the Atlanta chapter belongs, draws on entries from Florida to Washington, D.C.
New Officers
Recently, the chapter voted in a new president, brought in two new board members, and welcomed back a former member of the board who recently returned to Atlanta.
Chapter vice president, Cory Sekine-Pettite, has been named president, as former chapter president Mark Arend, a founding chapter member and editor of Site Selection magazine, moves to an overall chapter board position.
Sekine-Pettite also is a founding member of the chapter, having initially served as the board’s secretary. He is an editor at Lionheart Publishing, Inc., in Marietta, Ga., for a diverse group of magazines, including AKFCF Quarterly, Masonry, and Building Stone Magazine. Sekine-Pettite has served most of his 11-year career in business-to-business publishing.
He has a degree in journalism from the University of Georgia and began his career at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper.
The chapter’s new vice president is Jennifer Morrell, who has worked as an editor and writer for more than 12 years. She earned her journalism degree at the University of Georgia and has experience in consumer, trade, association, custom and newspaper publishing. Morrell has worked in a variety of industries, with particular expertise in real estate, sports and sporting goods, fiber and fabrics, fitness and health care.
New board member Larry Anderson is the editor of Access Control & Security Systems and a sister magazine, Government Security, both Penton Media publications. He has 30 years of journalism experience, including 20 years as editor of high-tech business and trade magazines. He has a degree in journalism from Georgia State University in Atlanta, and has worked on trade publications covering industrial robotics, paint, adhesives and corporate security.
The other new board member is Jamar Laster, managing editor of Nielsen Business Media’s Impressions magazine. He earned his journalism degree from the University of Georgia and has experience in various consumer and trade publications.
Laster was previously editor-in-chief of Men’s Edge, published by Future Publishing, and associate editor for trade magazine Sports Edge and consumer magazine SportingKid.
Other chapter board members include:
- Mark Arend, editor, Conway Data’s Site Selection;
- Randall Shearin, senior vice president, editorial and operations, of real estate publisher France Publications, and editor of Shopping Center Business; and
- Robin Sherman, principal, Editorial & Design Services and associate director of ASBPE.