Congratulations to us ... it's journalism awards season

It's a great honor to be recognized by your peers.

In the world of journalism, Plastics News' peers are other journalists. So it's a pleasure to report that our team has been honored this year with 14 awards, which is the most we've ever earned in one year.

Detroit SPJ

The most recent announcement came last night from the Detroit Society of Professional Journalists. These are awards that recognize excellent work done by newspapers, magazines, TV, radio and websites based in the Detroit metro area.

Plastics News staffers have seven winners in the Detroit SPJ Excellence in Journalism contest for 2016. They include:

General News:

Cathy Kavanaugh, first place, “Solar shingle business heats up: Competitors pick up Dow solar shingle sales.”

Bill Bregar, second place, “Back in the Groove,” his feature on the German company making vinyl record presses.

Spot/breaking news:

Bill Bregar, first place, “Murdough back in the toy game”

Consumer/watchdog reporting:

Cathy Kavanaugh, second place, for her ongoing coverage of JM Eagle's offer of free plastic pipe to Flint, Mich.

Feature story:

Steve Toloken, third place, for his coverage of international plastics recycling issues.

General column:

Don Loepp, third place, PN editorials.

Brennan Lafferty, honorable mention, What Keeps you Up at Night?

But that's not all! Next month our team will pick up five more awards from the American Society for Business Publication Editors (ASBPE).

The Azbee Awards of Excellence honor the best writing and design in business-to-business, trade, association and professional publications.

The awards honor all types of publications including magazines, newspapers, newsletters, websites and digital media.

Our winning entries include:

Front cover design: Jessica Jordan, for our special issue on family-owned businesses.

Infographics: Jessica Jordan and Hollee Keller, for the graphics package used with our injection molders ranking.

Podcast: Steve Toloken and Jeremy Carroll, for Plastics News Radio. (If you haven't listened to our entertaining monthly podcast yet, I encourage you to check it out).

Webcast: Plastics News Now. This was submitted as a “staff” entry, since many people contributed to the reports that we entered. But special congratulations go to Kerri Jansen, Jeremy Carroll and Rhoda Miel.

On-site trade show coverage: Our 2016 K Show Dailies. This is always a team effort — including help from our sister publications in Akron and Europe.

Notably, this will be the eighth time that Plastics News has been honored by the ASBPE for show dailies. It's a category that we have owned. Forget about sports dynasties like the Yankees, Bruins and Lakers. We should trademark the word eight-peat.

Finally, PN was a finalist in two categories for the Jesse H. Neal Awards this year. The Neals recognize business journalism in a wide variety of categories. They're often compared to the Pulitzer Prizes.

Our finalists were Jessica Jordan and Hollee Keller, who teamed up on the best infographics entry, and Don Loepp for best commentary/blog.