Plastics News journalists honored for outstanding work

The journalists at Plastics News continue to do outstanding work every day, and some of their best stories, graphics and projects of 2018 were honored in a three recent competitions.

First in the Jesse H. Neal awards, Jessica Jordan and Hollee Keller were finalists again this year in the category of best infographics. This is a repeat for this talented duo, they were finalists in the same category in 2017.

This year, the judges honored their work on the package of graphics that open the Plastics News processor rankings.

Next, our team picked up five awards this year from the American Society for Business Publication Editors (ASBPE).

Our Azbee winners this year were:

Gold winner, in the category: Print-Single Topic Coverage by a Team

Entry: Plastics News July 30, 2018, issue, special report on straw bans.

Winners: Steve Toloken, News Editor-International; Jim Johnson and Catherine Kavanaugh, Staff Reporters.

Silver winner in the category: Print-News Analysis

Entry: G7 plastics charter aims to remake single-use plastics.

Winner: Steve Toloken, News Editor-International.

Silver winner in the category: Online-Webcast Series

Entry: Plastics News Now.

Winners: Jeremy Carroll, Assistant Managing Editor; Audrey LaForest, Staff Reporter and Rhoda Miel, News Editor.

(PNN also won a silver award in the national ASBPE competition!)

This marks the fifth year in a row that PNN has won an Azbee, and the first since Audrey became the show's host.

Silver winner in the category: All Content-Trade Show/Conference Coverage

Entry: Plastics News Daily Reports from NPE2018

Winners: The Plastics News editorial staff.

This marks the 10th time that Plastics News has been honored by the ASBPE for show dailies. (Can you say dynasty?)

It's obviously a category where we excel. And we've already done one set of show dailies this year — in Spanish — at the Plastimagen trade show in Mexico.

Later this year, we'll do six English-language dailies at K 2019 in Düsseldorf, Germany.

Last year we did Daily Reports at NPE2018, and English-language dailies at Fakuma in Germany.

I love it when the Azbee judges recognize our show dailies, because they truly are a team effort. Last year that included our entire editorial team, plus assistance from our sister polymer publications in Europe and Akron, Ohio, and our two excellent freelance photographers. So thanks again to everyone who made the Daily Reports from NPE2018 an overwhelming success!

Bronze winner: in the category: Design-Infographics.

Entry: Plastics News infographics.

Winners: Jessica Jordan, art director, and Hollee Keller, editorial research coordinator.

On top of all those, our team also picked up four awards, including one first place, in the Detroit Society of Professional Journalists 2019 contest. These are awards that recognize excellent work done by newspapers, magazines, TV, radio and websites based in the Detroit metro area.

The awards, and the Plastics News staffers honored, include:

First Place, Environment Reporting, to Steve Toloken, Jim Johnson and Catherine Kavanaugh. This was for the special report, “Straw bans seen as tackling a ‘gateway plastic.'”

Third Place, Environmental Reporting, to Steve Toloken, for his stories, “G7 plastics charter aims to remake single-use plastics”/”Scientists see ‘tipping point' on ocean plastics.”

Fourth Place, Spot or Breaking News, to Frank Esposito, for “Processors, producers struggle with nylon 6/6 shortage.”

And finally, Fourth Place, General Column Writing, to Don Loepp, for his Viewpoint columns.

Thanks to everyone for the outstanding work.