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ASI’s Counselor Magazine Honored With Prestigious National Award For Editorial Excellence

 Counselor® magazine’s annual State of the Industry package was honored with a prestigious Jesse H. Neal journalism award for editorial excellence, the Advertising Specialty Institute® (ASI) of Trevose, PA, announced today.   In addition, magazines published by ASI were also finalists for four additional Neal awards, including an SGR™ profile of the 2017 distributor entrepreneur of the year and a good habits guide. Plus, reporters for Counselor and Wearables® magazines were singled out as finalists for producing the best range of work by a single author, including stories on how companies in the promotional products industry recovered from last fall’s hurricanes, and an embroidery shop makeover package.

“These honors are truly awesome, and exemplify the diversity and creativity of work that ASI’s editorial writers, editors and designers produce every single day,” said Andy Cohen, ASI’s vice president of editorial and marketing services. “Being honored with the top prize in the world of business reporting only reaffirms our long-standing commitment to delivering quality journalism to members of the promotional products industry.”

The Jesse H. Neal Awards are considered the Pulitzer Prize of business media, honoring winning reporting on major industry issues and pressing business challenges while helping guide industry leaders to higher levels of effectiveness. Other winners and finalists included Ad Age, American Lawyer and American Banker.

Below are the ASI magazines and journalists honored at the 64th annual Neal Awards ceremony in New York City:

Winner

  • Counselor, Best Editorial Use of Data: 2017 State of the Industry, by Editor-in-Chief Dave Vagnoni (@VagnoniASI) ‏ and Nathaniel Kucsma (@Nate_Kucsma_ASI), executive director of research and corporate marketing. The Neal judges said, “Not only does this survey provide a tremendous service to the industry, but the editors have taken it further, zeroing in on the most important stats and developing in-depth articles around them to bring in a wide range of voices.”

Finalists

  • Best Range of Work by a Single Author: Chris Ruvo (@ChrisR_ASI), executive editor of Counselor, for “To Hurricane Hell and Back,” a comprehensive report on how the promo companies recovered after hurricanes Harvey and Irma struck the South last fall, along with breaking news coverage, a news video series called “This Week in Promo” and features on the remarkable Fisher Space Pen used by NASA and embattled American Apparel founder Dov Charney.
  • Best Range of Work by a Single Author: Theresa Hegel (@TheresaHegel), executive editor of Wearables, for her extensive social media efforts on emerging video platforms like Facebook Live, Instagram and podcasts, the cover story “Better Safe Than Sorry” on ways business owners can take calculated risks and “Can This Embroidery Shop Be Saved?,” a multimedia package on a three-day business boot camp.
  • Best Profile for Michele Bell (@ASI_MBell), senior executive director of editorial and events, for the SGR profile on the 2017 Distributor Entrepreneur of the Year, Brand Blvd, about maverick upstarts Shaun Lichtenberger and Chris Sinclair.
  • Best Instructional Content for Theresa Hegel and contributing writer Crissa Debree for the Wearables feature “Good Habits Guide,” which presented sales and productivity tips in a fun, 30-day challenge format.

ASI publishes three magazines, four catalogs and six newsletters. In the past decade, ASI magazines have been honored with nearly 200 journalism awards and remain the only industry publications to ever win a national Jesse H. Neal Award.  MORE INFO