ASBPE, TABPI Young Leaders Scholarship Winners Announced

Seven editors travel to national conference; international scholarship given for the first time.

Scholarship winners, from left: Stephanie Ricca, Shabnam Mogharabi, Anthony Fletcher, Jennifer Polanz, Sarah Lourie, and Natalia Thomson. Photo by Jyme Mariani

The American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE) has announced the five winners of the sixth annual Young Leaders Scholarship program and the first annual Trade Association Business Publications International (TABPI) Young Leaders Scholarship.

The YLS winners are:

• Sarah Lourie, site editor, SearchSMB.com, and associate editor, SearchCIO.com/CIO Decisions magazine, Needham, Mass.
• Jennifer Polanz, managing editor of Today’s Garden Center, Willoughby, Ohio
• Shabnam Mogharabi, business editor for Pool and Spa News, Los Angeles, Calif.
• Stephanie Ricca, managing editor of Landscape Management, Cleveland, Ohio
• Spring Suptic, associate editor, Broadcast Engineering, Overland Park, Kansas

ASBPE Kansas City chapter president Amy Fischbach, who chaired the Selection Committee, said she was impressed with the 2006 Young Leader Scholarship winners’ entries. “The five winners are experienced editors with a bright future in the B2B publishing industry,” she said. “We look forward to having them as active members of the local ASBPE chapters nationwide.”

The ASBPE Young Leaders Scholarship is sponsored annually by the organization, and allows younger editors — who might otherwise be unable — to attend the ASBPE National Conference. This year’s conference is scheduled for July 20-21 in Chicago. The conference contains two days of intensive editorial sessions on topics that will include:

• Making Covers Noticed, Read, and Useful.
• Digital Magazines: Can They Do More Than Just Save Circulation Money?
• Resolving Editorial Ethics Issues. Crain Communications president Rance Crain and nationally known ethics writer Jeffrey Seglin will be our special guests.
• How B2B Editors Change the Industries They Cover. This session offers a preview of ASBPE's new book on that issue, Journalism That Matters: How B2B Editors Change the Industries They Cover.
• Covering Public Companies: Digging Up the Numbers and Information That Matter. The speaker is Chicago Tribune investigative business reporter Mark Skertic.
• B2B Blogging.

Winners will also attend the ASBPE National Awards of Excellence Banquet at the Embassy Suites Lakefront Hotel on July 20. This dinner banquet honors the best in the business press, including the announcement of the annual ASBPE Lifetime Achievement Award winner.

Sarah Lourie has worked for Tech Target Inc. in Needham, Mass., since 2003. As editor of SearchSMB.com, Sarah is responsible for providing IT professionals with up-to-date information in the small to medium-sized business market. Sarah manages the content on SearchSMB.com. She also contributes content to SearchCIO.com and CIO Decisions. Prior to joining TechTarget, Sarah was in the music business, having worked for Mosaic Records in Stamford, Conn. and Blue Note Records in New York City. Sarah is a graduate of the University of Connecticut and has a B.G.S with a focus in communications and English.

Shabnam Mogharabi serves as the business editor for Pool and Spa News in Los Angeles, Calif. In this position, she writes and edits business- and management-related new stories, profiles and national trend features. Mogharabi, who earned her master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree in print journalism and business administration from the University of Southern California, has also worked as a freelance writer and editor, reporter for Medill News Service in Chicago and a research assistant for People magazine in Los Angeles.

Jennifer Polanz is currently the managing editor of Today’s Garden Center magazine in Willoughby, Ohio. She started with the company as a staff writer and was then promoted to an assistant and associate editor for Today’s Garden Center and Greenhouse Grower. Before joining Meister Media Worldwide, she worked as a reporter for the Port Clinton News Herald and the Fremont News-Messenger. She graduated magna cum laude with her bachelor’s degree in journalism from Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio, and earned her master’s degree in journalism from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.

Stephanie Ricca, the managing editor of Landscape Management, manages staff, freelancers and production for a monthly trade magazine for 62,000 professional landscape contractors. She previously served as the associate editor for Advanstar Communications, a freelance reporter for the Plain Dealer, a reporter for Medill News Service and a publications coordinator for the Wildlife Habitat Council. She earned her bachelor’s degree in English and biology and her master’s degree in magazine writing and design from Northwestern University.

Spring Suptic has served as the associate editor of Broadcast Engineering and Broadcast Engineering World since April 2005. Suptic, who earned her bachelor’s degree in magazine journalism from the University of Kansas, was on the dean’s list. Before joining Prism Business Media, Spring worked for Advanstar Veterinary Healthcare Communications in Overland Park, Kansas, for four years as an editorial intern, assistant editor for Veterinary Medicine and assistant editor for Veterinary Economics. She freelances for the Heartland Chapter of the Professional Convention Management Association, serves as an active board member of the Kansas City chapter of ASBPE and manages the chapter’s Web site.

First Annual Scholarship Winners

The first international YLS winners are Anthony Fletcher and Natalia Thomson. TABPI president Paul Heney said he is proud to sponsor two international winners in conjunction with ASBPE to complement the existing YLS program.

"There are so many exciting things happening in global B2B publishing, that we felt it would be a great thing to bring some bright, young, international B2B editors into the mix at the ASBPE conference," said Heney, who helped judge the entries along with Fischbach and Portia Stewart, editor of First Line for Advanstar.

Anthony Fletcher is the editor of FoodNavigator.com, which was named news Web site of the year in the United Kingdom's food journalism awards 2005. Foodnavigator.com is the world's most-read news service among food formulators and ingredients buyers, with an audited readership of more than 85,000. He has lived and worked in the United Kingdom, France and Japan.

Natalia Thomson works at Africa's largest travel trade publisher, Now Media, as the managing editor of an inbound travel and tourism trade publication, Southern African Tourism Update. She is also heavily involved in online media initiatives for this sector and passionate about promoting the region as a tourist destination. Natalia has lived and worked in Portugal, Netherlands and the United Kingdom and is currently completing a MSC in publishing studies through the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, United Kingdom.

Download ASBPE’s press release about the Younger Leaders Scholarship winners.
(256KB Word doc).

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