Small Business Times has won two awards for editorial excellence in international competition among local business news publications.
The 2007 Editorial Excellence Awards for journalism, photography and design were presented recently by the Alliance of Area Business Publications (AABP), an organization of newspaper and magazine business periodicals from the United States, Canada and Australia.
“The purpose of the Alliance competition is to encourage a high level of journalistic performance and service to communities by recognizing editorial excellence and outstanding visual presentation in regional business publications,” said AABP executive director C. James Dowden.
SBT won a silver award in the “Best Feature Layout” category for a report headlined, “South side revival: Investors breathe new life into industrial sites.” The report explored the redevelopment of the former Louis Allis Co. and Metso Minerals industrial sites on Milwaukee’s south side.
The award-winning report was graphically presented by SBT art director Shelly Paul. The story was written by SBT reporter Eric Decker.
Commenting about the award-winning SBT report, the judges of the competition wrote, “Clean, crisp, consistent, color – the four C’s of design – are the strong suit of this package. It invites readers with a fine balance of white space and text blocks.”
SBT also won an AABP bronze award for “Best Web Site.” SBT began redesigning its Web site (www.biz-times.com) last August. Production manager Vanessa Serkowski worked extensively on the Web site redesign.
The site now features several useful tools for the owners and managers of privately held companies in southeastern Wisconsin, including: the BizTimes Daily news bulletin; the SBT Real Estate Weekly bulletin; the Milwaukee Biz Blog; Best Practices for growing businesses; a free interactive business event calendar; Web casts of business events; SBT Around Town; links to headlines from daily newspapers throughout the state; the exclusive BizTimes Stock Index of local stocks; the Business People section; and free electronic story archives that also are searchable and linkable by industry (for news specifically related to health care, manufacturing, banking/finance, business services, commercial real estate, economic development, education/ human resources, insurance, residential real estate, retail, technology and transportation).
Reader traffic at SBT’s Web site has quadrupled since the publication began its redesign last August.
Commenting about SBT’s Web site, the judges stated, “Small Business Times (www.biztimes.com) is easy to navigate. It puts nearly everything within easy reach right on the home page. Ads are well integrated, and the clear organization makes everything accessible.”
The awards were presented to SBT executive editor Steve Jagler at the AABP’s 2007 Summer Conference in Denver, Colo.
Professor Daryl Moen of the University of Missouri School of Journalism coordinated the contest. The contest judges included 29 faculty members from the school.
In the awards program, SBT competed against several prominent local business publications, including Crain’s Chicago Business, Crain’s New York Business, Crain’s Cleveland Business, the Los Angeles Business Journal, the Indianapolis Business Journal, Arkansas Business and the Baton Rouge Business Report.
“The awards won by our publication reflect the great team effort we have at Small Business Times,” said SBT publisher Dan Meyer. “Our staff has worked hard to deliver on our mission to facilitate commerce by delivering news and operational insight for the owners and managers of privately held businesses in southeastern Wisconsin. Our printed publication and our Web site are true resources for our readers.”
Earlier this year, SBT won two awards in the Milwaukee Press Club’s annual Excellence in Wisconsin Journalism Competition.
