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Curious Parents recognized with multiple design and editorial awards

Curious Parents was recognized in 2004 with multiple design and editorial awards by the Parenting Publications of America:

D4 - Front Cover: Stock Photo / Newsprint 55,000 or more Silver: Curious Parents, “Moms & Babies,” May 2003, Michele Quinn, art director; Pat Jenei, managing editor A cover story about Moms and Babies is well served by an extreme close-up of a beautiful, smiling child and her beautiful, smiling mother. The power of eye contact is evident in this frame and the rest of the page is kept simple so their emotions can shine through.
D8 - Briefs-Short Stuff 55,000 and more Bronze: Curious Parents, Michele Quinn, art director Lots of information and art is packed into this single page. Good use of hierarchy with the typography makes important content stand out. Easy-to-digest material.
D19 - Web Site Design 55,000 or more Gold: CuriousParents.com; John Piccone, publisher The simple addition of photos of kids with each departmental or lead page made this site literally jump out from the rest. Attractive, eye-catching yet not overbearing or intrusive on the content.  Lots of good information, well organized. A great combination of visual appeal and helpful information.
E3 - Briefs and Short Stuff 55,000 or more Bronze: “Noteworthy This Month,” Curious Parents; Pat Jenei, managing editor; Michelle Quinn, art director It’s fitting that an art director is among those to be recognized for this award. The design of the section captures readers with color, clever uses of photography and typography.    Once the readers are captured, they find plenty of solid information.
GE1 - Most Improved Gold:  Curious Parents; Michele Quinn, Art Director; Allyn Luciano, Graphic Designer; Pat Jenei, Editor. This magazine has undergone an extreme makeover – from a new table of contents to additional content and better use of news hole throughout.  Great ideas are the new Noteworthy This Month feature and a more tightly and brightly edited calendar.

March 6, 2004
For Immediate Release
Contact: James Dowden, PPA Executive Director
(323/937-5514)

PPA ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF 2003 EDITORIAL AND DESIGN AWARDS FOR LEADING PARENTING PUBLICATIONS

LOS ANGELES (March 6, 2004)—Parenting Publications of America (PPA) gave out 312 Editorial and Design Competition awards to parenting newspapers and magazines at a banquet on March 6, 2004, the climax of the three-day PPA Annual Convention in Fort Worth, TX.

PPA’s Editorial and Design Awards Competition recognizes excellence in journalism, photography and design achieved by publishers, editors, writers and designers at member publications. Prof. Daryl Moen of the University of Missouri School of Journalism coordinated the annual contest. A panel of 25 judges poured over 764 entries this year (up 100 from last year) to choose the winners in each category. All judges have had significant professional experience.

“The purpose of the PPA awards competition is to encourage a high level of journalistic performance and service to communities by recognizing editorial excellence and outstanding visual presentation in parenting publications,” said PPA Executive Director James Dowden.

Open to all member publications, the competition was broken into circulation divisions: 30,000 or less, 30,001 to 54,999, and 55,000 and more. Members competed for gold, silver and bronze in 22 editorial categories, 19 design categories, four General Excellence categories (Most Improved, Rookie of the Year, Ancillary Publication and General Excellence), reflecting editorial and design.

“The service features category in editorial and feature layouts in design continue to be the two most popular categories across all circulation divisions,” Prof. Moen noted. “It is fitting that service features continue to attract a large number of entries because service journalism is at the heart of parenting publications. They are all there to help families.” He continued, “The best writing overall appears in the various column submissions. Some are simply excellent by any standard of any organization.”

Established in March 1988, PPA is a national trade association of regional parenting publications that reaches from Seattle to Boston and from Minneapolis to Miami, and to Canada and Australia. Some of the publications are tabloid newspapers; others are magazines, with 4-color, glossy covers.

Headquartered in Los Angeles, PPA is a nonprofit national organization representing more than 150 parenting magazines and newspapers in the United States, Canada and Australia.