ASI Announces Counselor Magazine Wins Top Award

TREVOSE, PA – March 27, 2007 – The Advertising Specialty Institute®, the largest media and marketing organization serving the advertising specialty industry, announced today that Counselor magazine won a 2007 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award.

Counselor was selected as a winner in the “best subject-related series of articles” category for the “Family Business Spotlight” series.  There were only 12 categories for the Neal Awards this year, and Counselor was chosen from more than 1,300 entries.

The award reflects an emphasis on the important contributions from family-owned distributor and supplier firms to the success of the advertising specialty industry – of which about one-third of the companies are home-based.

“Congratulations to the editorial team for Counselor magazine,” said Timothy M. Andrews, president of ASI.  “This award is one of the highest national honors across business publishing and it signifies that the content provided in Counselor – read by more than 11,000 distributor principals and also suppliers who advertise – is high-quality, compelling and useful.”

“ASI is committed to supporting family businesses and we’ll continue to highlight their accomplishments in our own magazines and in the national media,” Andrews continued.  “I’m proud that ASI provides the highest-quality publications, products and services to family businesses and the ad specialty industry.”

The “Family Business Spotlight” series, written by Betsy Cummings and a continuing monthly feature in Counselor, analyzes the complexities and dynamics of running a family business. 

In the series, real-life, small companies are selected, profiled and reviewed by industry experts who provide ideas for marketing, finance and operations to grow sales and who also provide advice to address sometimes complicated and intricate family concerns.

ASI was considered for the Neal Awards among other impressive entries from many widely-acknowledged companies – including BusinessWeek SmallBiz magazine, Forbes.com and Computerworld magazine. 

More than 24,000 ASI distributors, suppliers and decorators use ASI’s resources every day to improve their businesses and to learn about the latest industry news and promotional products information.

For more information about the Neal Award honoring Counselor, or to recommend a company for the “Family Business Spotlight,” contact Rich Fairfield, publisher for ASI, at 800-546-1350 or at [email protected].  To learn more about the Neal Awards, visit www.americanbusinessmedia.com/abm/Neal.asp.

About ASI
Advertising Specialty Institute is the largest media and marketing organization serving the advertising specialty industry, with a membership of 24,000 distributor firms (sellers) and supplier firms (manufacturers) of advertising specialties.  Supplier firms use ASI print and electronic resources to market products to more than 20,000 ASI distributor firms.  Distributor firms use ASI print and electronic resources, which contain more than 750,000 ad specialties, to locate supplier firms and to market services to buyers.  ASI provides catalogs, informational directories, newsletters, magazines, websites and databases, and offers interactive e-commerce, marketing and selling tools.  Visit www.asicentral.com.