Virginia Business wins three national journalism awards

Virginia Business won three national journalism awards June 21, placing silver in three categories at The Alliance of Area Business Publishers’ (AABP) 2024 Editorial Excellence Awards ceremony, held in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The magazine took home a silver award in the Best Magazine Cover Category for the November 2023 cover, an AI-generated photorealistic illustration of a robot sitting at an office workstation that accompanied a cover story about how businesses are adopting generative artificial intelligence platforms in their work. Virginia Business Editor and Chief Content Officer Richard Foster created the image with Adobe Firefly, and Art Director Joel Smith provided typography.

“The intense image is unsettling and immediately conveys the tone of concern for the future of local workplaces and the implementation of AI,” the judges wrote about the cover illustration. “The type and design choices are simple and subtle. The cover implores thought as well as an emotional reaction.”

Associate Editor Katherine Schulte placed silver in the Best Personality Profile category for medium-size business publications for her December 2023 profile of Kristen Cavallo, the 2023 Virginia Business Person of the Year and then CEO of The Martin Agency and MullenLowe Global.

”This story starts with a hike up Mount Kilimanjaro, then takes readers along on a journey through the career of advertising CEO Kristen Cavallo. With robust reporting from the people around Cavallo and plenty of industry details, the writer builds a well-structured story about both the person and the business — two markers of a successful profile,’ the judges wrote about Schulte’s work.

Additionally, Virginia Business received a silver award in the Best Recurring Feature category among medium-size business publications for the magazine’s Virginia 500 Spotlight page, which highlights a single executive from the Virginia 500 Power List each month.

”A clever setup with offbeat questions gives these short features an unpredictable edge,” the judges wrote. “Asking about a first job, favorite vacation spot or ‘something they’d never do again’ enriches the interview and humanizes the subject. Even the photos are unexpected and thus, especially charming.”

The awards were judged by faculty members from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. Each award category was judged by a panel of three judges. The awards ceremony was held as part of AABP’s three-day annual conference.

Founded in 1979, AABP is a Norwalk, Connecticut-based nonprofit organization representing 54 regional and local business publications in the United States, Canada, and Australia, with a combined readership of more than 2.4 million business professionals.