The Business Report team was honored with with three national awards for editorial excellence by the Alliance of Area Business Publishers at the organization’s annual summer conference held over the weekend in Dallas.
Some 483 entries from 43 leading business publications in the U.S., Canada and Australia were judged by a team of faculty members at the University of Missouri School of Journalism for this year’s awards competition. AABP member publications are divided into small, medium and large groups for awards, with Business Report competing with the nation’s largest business publications, including those in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Indianapolis.
Business Report took home the gold for Best Coverage of a National/Economic Story for a piece by writer Sam Barnes about the debate on tougher restrictions on the payday loan industry. The judges wrote that the story was a “strong examination of how such loans can prey upon low-income borrowers who struggle to make payments while meeting their basic needs.”
The magazine also won gold awards in Best Recurring Feature for “E,” a regular profile of entrepreneurs in the community that appears on the last page of the magazine, and in Best Ancillary Publication, for its annual Trends in Health Care edition.
Julio Melara, CEO of Louisiana Business Inc., parent company of Business Report, says he is “very proud of our entire team and thrilled with this national recognition of their work.”
“We are blessed to work every day with such talented and dedicated people,” he says. “It is also an honor to represent Baton Rouge and share this success with our community, which has supported us for 35 years. We are grateful and will continue our commitment to excellence.”
