Around here we don't like to toot our horn too often, but once in awhile I like to recognize some accolades our staff has earned.
I believe that's important because—just as many of you at your companies—over the years we at Rubber & Plastics News have had to learn to do our job with a bit less staff. That means we have to work smarter and harder as we strive to be the top purveyor of news and information in the rubber industry.
And just recently, our editorial staff received a number of awards in the Press Club of Cleveland's All Ohio Excellence in Journalism Awards. This tells us from an objective set of judges that we are succeeding in this mission. All total, RPN took home six awards, including three first place plaques, with all staff members sharing in the honors.
Out of the six, I'm actually most proud of the second place we won in the Best Trade Publication in Ohio category because it recognizes the entire staff and examines the totality of effort put forth in bringing you the news of the rubber industry. It's an honor I don't take lightly, and I will make sure we don't take it for granted as we continue to provide our readers with a top-notch product, whether you choose to read it in print or online on your computer, tablet or phone.
Among the other awards we received, our Washington reporter, Miles Moore, won two—one for a story on Goodyear being fined in a bribery case and the other for his ongoing coverage of antidumping duties. Miles has been holding down the fort in Washington for RPN and our sister publication Tire Business for more than three decades.
At the other end of the experience spectrum, Chris Sweeney, on our staff for three years now, took home an award for reporting he did for our annual special section on automotive parts. I won one award in partnership with Mike McNulty and Don Detore for our coverage of Continental A.G.'s completion of its purchase last year of Veyance, one of the biggest non-tire acquisitions in rubber industry history. Mike and Don are both journalism veterans, Mike with our publication the last 18 years and Don here the past three years after a long career in daily newspapers.
The final award went to me for this column, a humbling experience given that my viewpoints just started appearing regularly in this space last year, following in the footsteps of our now-retired editor, Edward Noga.
With that done, now we can get back to the job of digging up more of the stories you'll want to read.
Meyer is editor of Rubber & Plastics News. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @bmeyerRPN.