BtoB Media Business - April 2009 - (Page 6)

NEAL AWARDS ‘Heavy Duty Trucking’ wins Grand Neal BY MARIE GRIFFIN Most monthly magazines have a fairly predictable format of editorial columns, news briefs, product announcements, departments and features. But when diesel fuel prices spiked above $5 a gallon last spring, Deborah Whistler, editorial director of Newport Communications Heavy Duty Trucking, scrapped it all to devote the upcoming issue entirely to the fuel crisis. This gave the editorial staff just three weeks to report and write new stories to fill more than 50 pages in the June issue. They sought to help their readers cope with the crisis by looking at escalating fuel prices and their implications from many angles, from the worldwide economic and political causes to specific tactics truckers and fleet owners could use to increase fuel efficiency. Meanwhile, the sales staff hit the ground running to tell existing advertisers of the change and ended up selling so many ads that the issue became Heavy Duty Trucking’s largest of the year. The hard work on the “Fuel Crisis Surival” package paid off for the editorial staff, which last month won the 2009 Grand Neal Award at American Business Media’s 55th Annual Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Awards ceremony in New York. “One of the final judges came up to me afterward to tell me how fascinated he was by one particular story,” Whistler said. “It was about a driver who took a bug screen off the front of his cab to see if it would save fuel. He got a fuel economy improvement of 1%, which is huge in this industry. He told the company president, who performed a more scientific test and proved the driver was right. This change saved the company $1 million.” This was the second Grand Neal for Heavy Duty Trucking, which also won it in 2001. Whistler dedicated it to Bette Garber, a member of the editorial staff who died suddenly last November. Journalists from Crain Communications Inc. and McGraw-Hill Cos. won nine and eight Neal Awards, respectively. Crain Communications’ Financial Week won the largest number of awards—five—of any publication. The magazine published its last print edition on Dec. 7, and suspended its Web site last month in response to the economic downturn. Glenn Coleman, Financial Week’s former editor and now managing editor of Crain’s New York Business, accepted the awards. Financial Week was one of three runnersup for the Grand Neal Award. The others 2008 Jesse H. Neal Award winners Grand Neal winner Heavy Duty Trucking, “Fuel Crisis Survival” (Newport Communications Group) Grand Neal runners-up ■ Engineering News-Record, “Momentum Intensifies for Crane Safety Programs” (McGraw-Hill Cos.) ■ Financial Week, “Credit Crunch” (Crain Communications Inc.) ■ Photo District News, “PDNPulse” (Nielsen Business Media) Best single article* ■ Aquatics International, “Infectious Fun?” (Hanley Wood) ■ Pharmaceutical Executive, “Fight Resistance” (Advanstar Communications) ■ Engineering News-Record, “Higher Learning” (McGrawHill Cos.) Best subject-related series of articles ■ Financial Week, “Special Report: Retirement Benefits” (Crain Communications Inc.) ■ Multifamily Executive, “Myth Busters” (Hanley Wood) ■ Engineering News-Record, “Extreme Construction” (McGraw-Hill Cos.) Best staff-written editorials or opinion columns ■ Financial Week, Editorials (Crain Communications Inc.) ■ Workforce Management, “The Last Word” (Crain Communications Inc.) ■ Automotive News, Editorials (Crain Communications Inc.) Best department ■ Big Builder, “Starts” (Hanley Wood) ■ Government Computer News, “GCN Lab” (1105 Media) ■ HR Magazine, “HR News” (Society for Human Resource Management) Best how-to article or subjectrelated series of how-to articles ■ Motor, “Tire Match Mounting & Custom Wheel Handling” (Hearst Business Media) ■ The Journal of Family Practice, “10 Derm Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make” (LebharFriedman Inc./Dowden Health Media) ■ Macworld, “Empty Your Inbox” (IDG/ Mac Publishing) Best news coverage ■ Financial Week, “Credit Crunch” (Crain Communications Inc.) ■ Counselor, “CorpLogoWare News” (Advertising Specialty Institute) ■ Engineering News-Record, “Momentum Intensifies for Crane Safety Programs” (McGraw-Hill Cos.) Best single theme or special issue of a magazine or newspaper/news tabloid ■ Plate, “The Bacon Issue” (Marketing & Technology Group) ■ Heavy Duty Trucking, “Fuel Crisis Survival” (Newport Communications Group) ■ Automotive News, “How General Motors Changed the World” (Crain Communications Inc.) Best single issue of a magazine ■ CSO, February 2008 issue (IDG/CXO Media) ■ Photo District News, “The Book Issue” (Nielsen Business Media) ■ Architectural Record, November 2008 issue (McGraw-Hill Cos.) Best single issue of a newspaper/news tabloid ■ Financial Week, Sept. 22, 2008, issue (Crain Communications Inc.) ■ DVM Newsmagazine, July 2008 issue (Advanstar Communications) ■ Advertising Age, Oct. 13, 2008, issue (Crain Communications Inc.) Best start-up publication ■ EcoHome, Hanley Wood Best e-newsletter ■ No awards given Best use of video ■ Engineering NewsRecord/ENR.com, “Construction Comes to Life” (McGraw-Hill Cos.) Best Web site ■ Financial Week, FinancialWeek.com (Crain Communications Inc.) ■ Architectural Record, ArchitecturalRecord.com (McGrawHill Cos.) ■ BNET.com (CNET Networks) Best online article or series ■ CSOonline.com, “The CSO Disclosure Series” (IDG/CXO Media) ■ ArchitecturalRecord.com, “Record Reveals: Boston” (McGraw-Hill Cos.) ■ Computerworld.com, “100 Best Places to Work in IT 2008” (IDG/Computerworld Best blog ■ PDNonline.com, “PDNPulse,” Nielsen Business Media ■ AviationWeek.com, “Ares” (McGraw-Hill Cos.) ■ Computerworld.com, “Apple Ink” (IDG/Computerworld) * Note: Winners are listed by category: small, medium and large. 6 | Media Business | April 2008 | mediabusinessonline.com http://www.FinancialWeek.com http://www.ArchitecturalRecord.com http://www.ArchitecturalRecord.com http://www.BNET.com http://www.CSOonline.com http://www.ArchitecturalRecord.com http://www.Computerworld.com http://www.PDNonline.com http://www.AviationWeek.com http://www.Computerworld.com http://www.mediabusinessonline.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of BtoB Media Business - April 2009

BtoB Media Business - April 2009
Contents
‘Heavy Duty Trucking’ Wins Grand Neal Award
Online Lead-Gen Transforms the Media Business
Five Ways to Work with Your Printer to Cut Costs
Sales & Marketing
M&A
Online
Circulation
Events
People
Benchmarks
Media is Still All About the Audience

BtoB Media Business - April 2009