A Wee Brag on the CONTROL/CONTROL DESIGN/INDUSTRIAL NETWORKING Team

If success in this business is judged by advertising space, we've made it. For 2005, the Control/Control Design/Industrial Networking team produced over 54% more advertising space (pages) than our nearest competitor. The reason I lump all three magazines together is that we took the path of covering process automation, discrete automation and machine builders, and industrial networking with three slightly overlapping circulations, rather than (as our competitors do) one magazine that caters to all of automation. Just so we're clear, CONTROL by itself is larger than our next competitor. This is a monumental achievement in the 18 years since Peggy Smedley and Keith Larson began this magazine with the radical idea that a trade magazine could be an effective voice of the customer, and still generate enough advertising revenue to be successful. So today, we print "without fear or favor" and sometimes we get nailed for it. But we've proven that our readers believe what we report, because they know that it isn't what the vendors want us to say, and it isn't written by vendors...it is written by professional journalists or end-users themselves. Our editorial staff has well over a man-century of work in the field of automation, as well as being journalists of some skill. Rich Merritt has won something like 12 ASBPE awards all by himself. And we've proven that the model and template can be transferred: Plant Services, Chemical Processing and Pharmaceutical Manufacturing have all been re-built in the Control style, and they've proven that it works there too. We've decided to celebrate this incredible achievement by nominating Keith Larson for the Crain Award. The American Business Media Crain Award is given annually to an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the development of editorial excellence in the business media. The award was established by a grant from the G.D. Crain, Jr. Foundation, and includes a distinctive crystal trophy and a check for one thousand dollars. By its name, the award honors a great business publication editor, the founder of Advertising Age. Nominations are now being accepted for the thirty-eighth annual American Business Media Crain Award competition. American Business Media member publications are invited to make a nomination for this award. The deadline for nominations is Friday, January 6, 2006. To be considered for the award, a nominee must have a proven career record for editorial accomplishment. He or she must have formulated editorial policies and directed editorial activities for one or more specialized business publications or Web sites and must have assumed leadership in the field or industry that his or her publication serves. The nominee must have demonstrated a capacity for maintaining the highest editorial standards, and must have advanced American Business Media's tradition of editorial initiative, leadership and integrity. Nominees may be active or retired members of the business media, but the award will not be given posthumously. The competition draws nominees of high caliber. Because only one award is given per year, nominees who are unsuccessful in their first year of entry may be renominated in a subsequent year. If you would like to help us, let me know at mailto:[email protected]?subject=KeithCrain and I will tell you what you need to do. Nobody deserves this award more than Keith. Walt