ASBPE’s Awards Committee has been hard at work preparing to launch the 2026 Azbee Awards of Excellence, and it has announced several updates for this year’s awards.
The Awards Committee makes updates to the Azbees every year based on entrant and judge feedback. Join committee members on Nov. 3 to learn more about this year’s changes and gain insights on submitting to the Azbee Awards during our “Azbee Awards 2026: Your Guide to the Submission Process” event.
New and Updated Categories
The Awards Committee has debuted several new categories for the 2026 Azbee Awards, including:
- Best Body of Work: Introduced in 2025, this Overall Excellence category celebrates the top individual portfolios from one staff journalist, one freelance journalist and one designer. To earn this coveted award, nominees must demonstrate creativity, range, impact, skill and craft across their top five work products from the year.
- Best Conversion from Print to Web: This category joins the online division to celebrate publications that converted their print magazine to a new website in 2025. Both publications that have moved to digital-only and those that have transitioned to hybrid publishing may compete in this category.
- Best Design for a Single Issue: This new Design division category is for design teams that go above and beyond for a singular issue. Designers should submit their best-designed regular issue, special issue or supplement.
Updates have been made to several existing categories as well:
- The Front Cover categories and Opening Page/Spread categories have been combined into a single category each, allowing the Awards Committee to recognize incredible design work on front covers and opening spreads, while also supplementing the Design division with new categories.
- The Breaking News Coverage category now allows tracker articles.
- The Special Issue or Supplement category no longer requires a prior regular issue.
- The Podcast category now accepts “video podcasts,” however, judges will still focus on audio only.
- The Microsite category has been updated to Web Special Section, removing outdated requirements for sections of specialized content.
- Additionally, design/graphics requirements and judging criteria have been removed from many of the editorial-focused categories.
Submitting to the Azbees
The Awards Committee has also made changes to simplify its submission process and provide additional benefits to ASBPE members. Members now receive a $100 discount per entry, and the additional $20 discount for freelance members remains. Entrants can now submit the same material in up to three categories without further caveats. Collaborative work is now allowed — if an editorial team has successfully worked together with another brand or publication to create award-winning work, it can be submitted so long as it meets the category requirements.
Judging Is More Rewarding
Judges who complete their scoring are now eligible for $100 in Azbee Bucks to use toward ASBPE expenses, such as future Azbee Awards submissions, membership dues and event registrations. Judges who complete scoring on two or more categories also will receive an additional $100 in Azbee Bucks earmarked for attending ASBPEvolve 2026, ASBPE’s national conference. Learn more about judging or volunteer today.
Further updates to categories and the submission process can be found on the New for 2026 page and the Eligibility & Rules page.
2026 Azbee Awards Deadlines:
The 2026 Azbee Awards entry period kicks off Oct. 31, 2025. See details about entry fees, discounts and deadlines here.
- Early-Bird Savings Deadline: Save $30 per entry by submitting before Dec. 16, 2025, at 8 p.m. ET.
- Regular Entry Deadline: Jan. 9, 2026, at 8 p.m. ET.
- Late Entry Deadline: Continue to submit through Jan. 20, 2026, at 8 p.m. ET with an additional fee of $20 per entry.