By Paul J. Heney
Past ASBPE National President

One of the most important programs that ASBPE conducts is the Young Leaders Scholarship. This scholarship is awarded to five deserving b2b editors, 30 or younger, each year. The winners attend the annual ASBPE Editorial Conference, this year’s being in Kansas City from July 23-25. The scholarship covers their conference registration and hotel … all their company has to pay for is their transportation costs to the event.

In 2006, I proposed that ASBPE and TABPI join up to also extend the YLS program overseas. Since then, we have chosen an additional two non-U.S.-based editors to join the conference each year. The only difference here is that TABPI also reimburses the winners up to $500 toward the cost of their airfare. That only seems right, since (for example) a Chicago to Kansas City ticket is vastly cheaper than a London-Kansas City ticket!

In the first two years, editors from South Africa, France, Canada and The Netherlands have attended the ASBPE Editorial Conference, bringing an interesting mix to the already diverse crowd.

I’m proud to tell you a little about the 2008 winners, who were just selected this month.

From the United Kingdom, we’re pleased to welcome Andy Hoskins. Andy is deputy editor for bmi Publications' The Business Travel Magazine, a publication voted best in its field at the recent Business Travel Journalism Awards. He’s been with bmi since 2004. Andy holds a BA in geography and is a keen sportsman and traveler. He plays regularly for a local soccer team, enjoys cycling and plans to run his first marathon in Edinburgh, Scotland, next month.

And from South Africa, we welcome Kate Rau. Kate was recently named editor for SALESGURU magazine, the country’s only publication focused purely on selling. She is looking forward to growing the quality of the magazine and website, as well as increasing national exposure of the brand. Kate formerly worked for Push Media and Media 3S / Shorten Publications. She has a BA in journalism, and enjoys gardening, yoga, reading and walking her boxer.

For more details, please see www.tabpi.org/scholarship.htm

Paul J. Heney is senior editor of Hydraulics & Pneumatics.

Editor's Note: ASBPE will announce the U.S.-based winners of the Young Leaders Scholarship soon.

Labels: Azbee Awards, International Media, Paul Heney, TABPI

By Tonie Auer
DFW Chapter President and National Blog Chairwoman

I am on a few different journalism email distribution lists. I get things coming to my inbox that direct me to the latest firings, hirings and scandals related to news outlets. Some of it is garbage and, occasionally, some of it is golden. Last week, I found one of those nuggets that I think could be really useful to newsies of all sorts.

It came to me via the Editors Weblog about how IFRA started IFRA Search. Oooooh, this is the coolest thing to me. IFRA Search, however, is engineered for media professionals who demand specific, current and reliable results about the news publishing industry.

Go try it. I did a search for improving circulation and up pop several summaries at newspaper summits about growing circulation and changing newsrooms. The same Web search on a generic search engine came up with nothing but medical sites. So, you can see how it is helpful to weed out those results immediately.

I think it's an ingenious tool for all of us in the publishing world.

By the way, happy St. Patrick's Day. I am even wearing green in my new mug shot here. :)

Labels: International Media, Journalism, Management, Productivity, Technology, Tonie Auer

Think you're creative? You have two days to prove it by entering the TABPI Design Challenge, sponsored by Trade Association Business Publications International. The challenge is to design a cover for a hypothetical issue of an imaginary magazine, Concrete Times. The reward is $250 for the overall winner. The challenge is open to all B2B art directors and designers.

The TABPI Design challenge deadline is this Friday, Feb. 29.

Also looming is the deadline for TABPI's Tabbie Awards. This international awards competition is open to trade, association and business magazines published at least four times per year, completely or partially in English. Magazines must accept paid advertising. This year TABPI has added a new web category, Online Feature. (Online entries don't need an associated print publication, but they must be b2b-oriented and accept advertising.)

Entries for the Tabbies must be submitted by Wednesday, March 5.

Labels: Design, Editing, International Media, Martha Spizziri, Media Industry Awards, Tabbie Awards, TABPI