Mr. Bush gave a presentation "Taking the Awards Process to the Next Level" at the Western Region Azbee awards banquet held July 23 at the Plaza III Restaurant in Kansas City, Mo., and run by the Kansas City chapter of the American Society of Business Publication Editors.
A sufficient staff will allow a publisher to let an editor loose to tackle big issues and create award-winning copy, Mr. Bush said. He gave an example of how Transmission & Distribution World was able to report from New Orleans on Hurricane Katrina's effects.
He added editors may invest in the future of a publication by investing the time to learn about the industry the publication covers.
"Find out what your readers would find out by themselves if they only had the time," Mr. Bush said.
Planning for an awards competition may start a year before entries are sent out, or when magazine personnel are creating editorial calendars. Magazine editors and publishers should know which categories they excel in, he said. For example, Transmission & Distribution World normally does well with stories in such categories as case histories, editorials and individual profiles. However, the mgazine rarely enters stories in the categories of how-to articles, feature series and government coverage.
The editors of Transmission & Distribution World are selective when entering awards. "We save a lot of money by entering only what we're proud of," Mr. Bush said.
