Virginia Business wins 16 Va. Press Association awards

Virginia Business won 16 awards in the Virginia Press Association’s 2023 News & Advertising Contest, the state organization announced Saturday.

The annual contest recognizes excellence in design, writing, photography, illustrations and advertising in participating publications across Virginia for the previous calendar year. This year’s contest was judged by members of the Missouri Press Association. A banquet honoring the winners was held May 4 at the Omni Charlottesville Hotel.

Virginia Business Art Director Joel Smith and former Associate Editor Courtney Mabeus-Brown took first-, second- and third-place prizes across multiple categories. Smith won five awards for advertising and was a co-winner of a design and presentation award recognizing the magazine’s cover art. Mabeus-Brown, now senior reporter for Arlington County-based Air Force Times, won three awards for news and feature writing.

Virginia Business won seven first-place awards in the following categories:

News Writing Portfolio — Courtney Mabeus-Brown won for a body of stories including “Federal shutdown could have deep impacts in Va.” “Va. could get $100M+ lithium-ion battery project,” and “Pittsylvania site is top contender for $100M battery project.” The latter two stories were consecutive daily scoops reporting that Tennessee-based Microporous was in discussions to located a major battery manufacturing plant at the Southern Virginia Megasite at Berry Hill, a joint industrial park owned by Pittsylvania County and Danville. The state government has codenamed the economic development effort “Project Stellar.”

Column or Commentary Writing — Virginia Business President and Publisher Bernie Niemeier took top honors in this opinion writing category for his “OurView” column. Niemeier’s winning columns included “Reimagining the corporation” — examining motivating factors for business beyond profit — and “Is ESG another CRT?,” which focused on conservative opposition to corporate environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) initiatives. “Such an easy read,” judges said of Niemeier’s columns. “It flowed like honey. Interesting and relates to everyone.”

Feature Photo — Freelance photographer James Lee won for his sophisticated photo spread accompanying Virginia Business’ 2023 Black Business Leaders Awards, the magazine’s February 2023 cover story, with judges calling his work “stately … yet light-hearted.”

Pictorial Photo — “Incredible shot of a loving dad and son. You feel this emotion in the action caught clearly, ” contest judges said in applauding freelance photographer Jeneene Chatowsky’s moving portrait of Luminoah founder and CEO Neal Piper and his young son Noah, whose battle with childhood cancer inspired Piper’s health care technology business.

Education, Churches and Organizations advertising — Art Director Joel Smith won for his design of a magazine ad for Hampton Roads Workforce Council. Judges singled out his “good use of white space and use of color palette.”

Professional Services advertising (excluding health care) — Smith won for a striking full-page magazine ad for Martinair.

Real Estate advertising — The judges praised Smith’s ad designed for The Franklin Johnston Group, saying, “Great layout, perfect subject photo, excellent color palette. This ad is balanced, informative, and elicits feelings of success.”

Virginia Business also took five second-place awards:

• Feature Writing Portfolio — Mabeus-Brown won for a package of feature stories focusing on higher education and remote work, which judges lauded for “thorough reporting with great research, stats [and] well-used sources.” The portfolio of work included her August 2023 cover story, which scrutinized return on investment from college tuition at Virginia institutions of higher learning, and a September 2023 cover story reporting that remote and hybrid work would be permanent fixtures in the post-pandemic work world.
• Business and Financial Writing — Freelance writer Katherine Hamilton won for her November 2023 story, “On the basis of race,” investigating how a 2023 Supreme Court ruling against race-based affirmative action policies at universities could result in an increase in reverse-discrimination lawsuits against businesses.
• Special Sections or Special Editions — Virginia Business staff won for the magazine’s 2023 Maritime Guide special issue, which the judges called “a great piece, front to back.” A team effort, the guide was coordinated by Deputy Editor Kate Andrews, with presentation and design overseen by Art Director Joel Smith. Virginia Business Associate Editors Beth JoJack, Katherine Schulte and Robyn Sidersky also contributed to the issue.
• Illustrations — Freelancer Tom Edwards contributed the winning illustration, depicting a businessman consulting a crystal ball, for the Hampton Roads Business guide story, “Gazing into the future.”
• Education, Churches and Organizations advertising — Smith also took second place in this category for his design of a magazine ad for the Virginia Economic Developers Association (VEDA).

Finally, the magazine won four third-place awards in these categories:

• Feature Writing Portfolio — Judges cited Associate Editor Katherine Schulte’s “great, thorough reporting with plenty of details, research and useful sources that bring the topics home for readers. All of the stories were great.” Her winning portfolio of stories included “A severe case,” about Virginia’s shortage of primary care practitioners; “Wizards of National Landing,” focusing on the opening of Amazon.com’s HQ2 East Coast headquarters; and “The next frontier,” a look at how Virginia companies are responding to the advent of generative artificial intelligence tools.
• General News Writing — Mabeus-Brown rounded out her 2023 trio of awards, taking third place for her back-to-back daily scoops about a major lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant potentially coming to Pittsylvania County.
• Headline Writing — Editor and Chief Content Officer Richard Foster placed for entries such as “On cloud nine,” for a feature story about Virginia data centers and cloud computing; “Love at first site,” for a story about corporate headquarters site selection; and “It’s alive — with possibilities,” accompanying a story about the “Frankenstein”-like ethical quandaries posed by generative AI.
• Front Page/Front Cover — Smith led this team category, which also recognized Virginia Business editors Foster and Andrews and freelancer illustrator Mark Jeffries and photographer James Lee for their work on Virginia Business’ January, July and November 2023 covers.

Virginia Business competed in the specialty publications category, which also included Ashburn Magazine, Richmond magazine and the Washington Business Journal. Ashburn Magazine won the VPA’s grand sweepstakes award for the specialty publications category.