It’s that time of year – the kids are back in school, the leaves are changing colors, and Azbee Awards submissions are right around the corner. ASBPE’s 2025 Azbee Awards of Excellence competition opens for submissions Nov. 1, 2024.

“A decade ago, Industry Dive didn’t apply for journalism awards like the Azbees. But over time, we saw the overwhelming and positive impact on our business when submitting to journalism awards,” said ASBPE President Davide Savenije. “It’s a motivational tool. It’s an incentive and a reward. It provides brand exposure and attracts top talent. It pushes us and fosters more ambitious and impactful journalism. And it’s a great way to celebrate incredible work and the people that produced it.”

It’s time to think about the work you and your team accomplished this year. Where did you raise the bar, where did your colleagues truly push themselves, and where did your team go big? The Azbee Awards present an incredible opportunity to stand out among the competition, celebrate your team and their best work, and be recognized by your peers as the best of the best in B2B.

Check out past Azbee Awards winners and our blog posts for inspiration, and read about why submitting is a great opportunity for freelance writers and industry associations.

2025 Azbee Awards Updates:

We’ve been busy improving the competition based on entrant and judge requests:

• All ASBPE members receive a $25 per entry discount, but now, freelance members receive an additional $20 per entry discount.
• We’ve simplified our Entry Form to a single page and reduced our required submission details.
• We also changed our entry deadlines to give more time to get submissions in at the end of the day. Customer service hours will be 9:30 am to 5:00 pm ET on weekdays.
• One staff journalist, one freelance journalist and one designer will earn a coveted Best Body of Work award for their portfolio of 2024 work. While other Azbee Awards recognize the work of a publication’s editorial team, ASBPE’s newest Overall Excellence category celebrates the top individual portfolios from B2B journalists and designers. Winners must demonstrate creativity, range, impact, skill and craft across their top five work products from the year.
• The Editorial category has been converted to Thought Leadership to allow editorials and a wider range of thought leadership columns and articles to be submitted.
• Group or Company Profile entries are now submitted to a single category awarding coverage of companies, organizations and groups with aligned purposes and goals. We’ve created a new category for Group Recognition Program submissions, such as the common “30 under 30” or “Top 20 Engineers” features.
• The Best Social Media Campaign category has been updated to Best Use of Social Media to better reflect how today’s publishers are using social media platforms not only to attract readers, but to interact with their audience, to provide context to the news they’re reporting, and to show how their work is done.
• Our video categories have been revised to Video and Video Series to honor the single best video, as well as thoughtful and well-executed series.
• Our Multi-Platform Package of the Year category has been updated to Project of the Year. The category now recognizes the best overall topical project with a cohesive theme, requiring at least three pieces of content delivered to the audience across three platforms. Entrants may submit up to 10 pieces total.
• Visit our New for 2025 page for more Azbee updates, including the new design categories we’re launching soon!

Deadlines and Fees

View our Azbee Awards deadlines and entry fees for updated information. We’ve kept our entry fees the same, and introduced a new discount for freelancers. ASBPE members save $25 on each entry, so check your membership status or join ASBPE now. Freelance members will save an additional $20 per entry.

• Early-Bird Entry Deadline: Save $30 per entry by submitting Friday, Nov. 1, 2024 through Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, at 8:00 p.m. EST
• Regular Entry Deadline:  Friday, Jan. 10, 2025, at 8:00 p.m. EST
• Late Entry Deadline: Continue to enter all categories through Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025, at 8:00 p.m. EST for an additional fee of $10 per entry.

Judge the Azbees

The Awards Committee is recruiting our team of judges for the 2024 Azbee Awards. Would you like to help us rate the best of B2B media editorial and design? Do you want a sneak peak of other publication’s best work? Want ideas for how to handle certain types of work or topics? Learn more and join us for judging in January and February 2025.

Upcoming Programming

ASBPE has insightful programming coming to help you think about your award submissions:

• The 2024 Azbee Website of the Year winner didn’t even exist in 2022. But that may not even be the most impressive part of its creation. Join us for our Nov. 7 webinar to learn the story behind Craft to Crumb’s development, from idea to launch to winning ASBPE’s prestigious Website of Year award.
• Azbee Award judges have seen it all when it comes to B2B editorial and design awards. Register for our Nov. 20 webinar for your exclusive chance to hear from experienced Azbee Awards judges about what they look for in award-winning entries, how judging enriches their own newsroom experience, what it takes to be a judge and more.
• ASBPE’s Executive Director Jessi McCarthy-Hills is opening up space in her calendar to answer all of your Azbee submission questions during Azbee Office Hours, hosted on Nov. 13, Nov. 25, Dec. 10, Dec. 16, Jan. 7 and Jan. 13.

About the Azbee Awards

The Azbee Awards of Excellence honor the best in B2B media, recognizing outstanding work by business, trade, association and professional publications across more than 60 categories. One of the most competitive award programs for B2B media, the Azbees highlight editorial, online and design excellence within print media, email newsletters and online publishing.

The competition is open to all U.S.-based B2B, trade and association publications. ASBPE membership is not required for entry, but members receive a discount on entry fees.