2016 Azbee Awards of Excellence
Category
Print > Company Profile > Less Than $3 Million Revenue > Heartland
Awarded to
Brooke N. Bates, Contributing Editor
Entry details
Better together
Issue date (if applicable): 12/15/2015
Publication name: Lawn & Landscape Magazine
Publishing company: GIE Media Inc.
Website home page: www.lawnandlandscape.com
Please describe the publication's mission and readership:
Lawn & Landscape is the leading trade publication serving the green industry in North America, which covers everything from chemical lawn care to commercial maintenance, landscape lighting, hardscaping, and irrigation. Lawn & Landscape reaches approximately 68,000 subscribers; these are contractors and companies that provide landscaping installation and maintenance, lawn care, irrigation, snow and ice removal services. As part of GIE Media Horticulture Group, Lawn & Landscape magazine provides contractors with the research, insight and analysis to help them grow their companies.
Please describe the enterprising work that went into this entry and its significance or impact on readers:
My editor heard about two rival landscaping firms in Boise that had recently merged after years of fierce competition. He assigned me the story in the form of a 1,200-word profile.
In the midst of merging their companies, the owners agreed to speak with me. I interviewed them each separately – at ages 28 and 51 respectively, they had very different approaches to running a business, and individual interviews allowed them each to tell their side of the story in their own voice. I also conducted a round of follow-up interviews later, after the company began rolling out re-branded uniforms and signage post-merger.
After reading the profile I submitted, my editor decided to run it as a cover story instead of an inside feature. Although the article still profiled the merger of two competitors into one company, the story held more significance than just a typical profile because it showcased, in detail, how bitter rivals could achieve more together by collaborating instead of competing.
I followed up with the owners again to fill out more details about the merger, and began coordinating the photo shoot with them. I submitted a revised version that ran as a 2,000-word cover story in the December issue of Lawn & Landscape magazine.
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Better together
Category
Print > Company Profile > Less Than $3 Million Revenue > Heartland
Description
Publication name:
Lawn & Landscape Magazine
Company:
GIE Media Inc.
Winner Status
- National Bronze Award
- Regional Bronze Award
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