WardsAuto Wins Top Editorial Award

WardsAuto.com took top honors for “Editorial Excellence” in the business-to-business category in MIN‘s Best of the Web awards handed out this week.

WardsAuto also won an honorable mention from MIN for overall excellence in the “Premium Site” category, an award given for the best subscription website.

In winning the Editorial Excellence category, WardsAuto topped two other nominees in business-to-business publishing, Variety.com and BusinessWeek Online.

In naming WardsAuto to the top prize, judges said:

“Business publishers love to toss around the ‘industry bible‘ imprimatur, but the term really sticks to Prism Business Media‘s WardsAuto.com. More than a must-read, Ward‘s is the news and opinion feed for a central piece of the U.S. economy. It rises to the challenge with content that is both authoritative and intriguing. “WardsAuto provides a mix of solid reporting and breaking news with in-depth analysis. Its sources run deep into every company, so that every item is an education in some aspect of the auto world.

“Even the simplest story on an executive move includes details and a rich understanding of a company‘s internal structures. Ward‘s stories almost always contain some bit of historical background or editorial take that puts news in context.”

MIN judges said WardsAuto‘s “fleet of columnists, including Alisa Priddle, Jerry Flint, and Steve Finlay, pulled no punches in 2005 in analyzing an American car industry that needed more than a little constructive criticism.

“WardsAuto.com also stands out among all B2B brands in its embrace of new media delivery mechanisms. Reversing the typical relationship between offline and online platforms, WardsAuto.com…stories appear online first and then migrate to print.

“Detroit may be having trouble charting a route into the future, but the brand that covers it best clearly sees where its own B2B publishing industry is headed."

MIN publishes newsletters and magazines on business-to-business media and marketing.

Since debuting in 2001, WardsAuto.com has won numerous honors, including the Gold Award for New Web Publication and the Silver Award for Original Web News Section in the 2002 American Society of Business Publication Editors‘ Awards of Excellence. The site won the top prize in the ASBPE‘s Original Web Feature category last year.

WardsAuto.com won several International Wheel Awards in 2005 and swept the Internet news story or series category, garnering all four honors in the 2004 International Wheel Awards, presented by the Detroit Press Club Foundation and recognizing the best in automotive journalism.