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Curious Parents recognized with multiple design and editorial awards

Curious Parents was recognized in 2006 with multiple design and editorial awards by the Parenting Publications of America:

D4 - Front Cover/Newsprint: Stock Photo 55,000 and above Silver: Curious Parents- Lehigh Valley-Pocono; “Sports Camps,” Allyn Luciano, art director. You can’t miss with a cute youngster sporting a winning smile. The image is flanked by two appropriate tease lines: Sports Camps and T-Ball. Allowing the photo to do its job, the type does not intrude on the image. Print quality is very good on newsprint.
D4 - Front Cover/Newsprint: Stock Photo 55,000 and above Gold: Curious Parents - South Jersey; “Dakota Fanning,” Allyn Luciano, art director and Jennifer Cooper, graphic designer. The eyes have it. They draw the reader into the cover. The type is unobtrusive, yet conveys the necessary tease lines. While many covers seem to have to force type over images, this is effective use of space around the image. The designers also paid attention to color and made effective use of complementing colors.
E8 - Column: Family Matters 55,000 and above Silver: Curious Parents, “Food bites,” Laura Zurita; Matt Stringer, editor; Pat Jenei, managing editor writer’s passion for nutrition education comes through in this column that tells readers the hows and whys of healthy eating.
E10 - Column: Humor 50,000 and above Gold: Curious Parents; Carey Potash, writer; Matt Stringer, editor; Pat Jenei, managing editor Ok, “Boy could he swim!” about the untimely death of a Siamese Fighting Fish, is that rare piece that makes you laugh and get a lump in your throat at the same time. Special stuff

March 4, 2006
For Immediate Release
Contact: James Dowden, PPA Executive Director
(323/937-5514)

PPA ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF 2005 EDITORIAL AND DESIGN AWARDS FOR LEADING PARENTING PUBLICATIONS

LOS ANGELES (March 4, 2006)—Parenting Publications of America (PPA) gave out about 375 Editorial and Design Competition awards to parenting newspapers and magazines at a banquet on March 4, 2006, the climax of the three-day PPA Annual Convention in Philadelphia, PA.

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’s School of Journalism coordinated the annual contest. A panel of judges poured over 1,048 entries this year (up from 979 last year) to choose the winners in each category. All judges have had significant professional experience.

Five new categories were added this year: one in editorial, one in design and three in the ancillary publication category. Also, editorial and design awards were limited to members' main publications, and separate ancillary categories were created for ancillary products. Awards Program Chair Cathy Ashby, editor of Carolina Parent, was largely responsible for the revisions.

There was a terrific increase in entries this year, primarily due to the addition of the new categories. Ancillary general excellence attracted 20 entries and interior illustration attracted 13. Both of these were newly added categories for this year. There was also an increase from 46 entries to 60 entries in the categories for front cover and design, and an increase in web entries from 6 to 17, which reflects the move for many publications to the Web. The Travel Column category also saw a big increase of entries from 17 to 31.

Two categories had notable declines. One was service features, which went from 53 to 43, and the other was overall design, which dropped from 35 to 24.

Entries came from 72 different member publications.

“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 fewer, 30,001 to 54,999, and 55,000 and more. Members competed for gold, silver and bronze in 22 Editorial categories, 18 Design categories, five Ancillary Publications categories, two Web Site categories and four General Excellence categories (Rookie of the Year, Most Improved, Ancillary General Excellence and General Excellence), reflecting editorial and design.

The quality of reporting appears to be getting stronger, judges noted. They added that writers of the best stories are asking better questions and finding more sources than in years past. Column writing remains a strength. Judges said the writers do a great job of using their experiences as parents to draw universal messages. Also, competition in the cover category for design has stiffened. Publications are doing a better job of finding good images and writing tease lines.

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 120 parenting magazines and newspapers in the United States, Canada and Australia.