Three SABEW awards

It's been a very difficult week at work, but on Tuesday morning I got some news that really made my day: The Industry Standard received three awards from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.

SABEW was founded in the 1960s and is headquartered at the University of Missouri's journalism school. Its members consist of thousands of business journalists, mostly from the U.S.. The annual "Best in Business" contest is judged by a SABEW committee, and highlights some of the outstanding business journalism each year. Traditionally, the awards have concentrated on print publications (daily newspapers and business magazines) but in recent years online publishers have made inroads, and there is now an "online excellence" component to the BiB contest.

For the 2008 contest, the Standard was recognized in three online categories for small websites: Where Are They Now? (Project) "10 'Net services that will succeed (and 10 that will probably fail)" (Creative Use of Online) and four of my own blog posts on The Standard (Blog):

• Microsoft's unrealized online dreams (February 3, 2008)
• What's missing from the Twitter funding announcement: Revenue (June 24, 2008)
• Why podcasting is failing, part II: Lessons from PodTech (July 18, 2008)
• Randy Pausch dies, and the world loses a true hero (July 25, 2008)

Here's what the judge said about my work:

“The Twitter post was spot-on. Then the follow-up on Twitter and podcasting advanced the issue further and was a longer piece, but still interesting. His voice could be stronger. Still, he is a fine writer who keeps his readers’ interest.

It's a nice comment, and the advice is welcome: I do need to improve my voice. That's something I'll try to work on in the coming months.

In addition, while we may be small, these awards demonstrate that the TIS staff and contributors can really do some special work. A lot of credit needs to go to the many folks who wrote and produced the two special features that won the Project and Creative Use of Online awards, including contributing writers Bill Snyder, Kristen Nicole, David Cotriss, and Mark Henricks, as well as the Standard's Eric Hill, Chris Tompkins, and Baldwin Louie. This was a great honor for all of us and you can see by looking at the complete list of Best in Business winners that we're in very good company.