About Judging the Azbees

Who our judges are

The Azbees experience doesn't stop after you submit your entries. Our Awards Committee invites experienced staff and freelance business publication editors, writers, designers, and academics to join our team of judges in reviewing each Editorial, Design, and Overall Excellence category. All categories are judged by professionals — with a minimum of three years of industry experience — who are doing hands-on B2B editorial and design work.

Year after year, approximately 70% of our judges return to judge again. Our repeat judges renew the prestige of our competition, while fresh faces help keep us current.

No matter how busy I am, I always judge the Azbees — no exceptions — and I highly encourage my staff to do the same. Every single year, I come away inspired and full of ideas to improve upon our publications in the coming year. And it makes me proud to be a B2B journalist."  - Tara Taffera, Editorial Director, Key Media & Research

What judging entails

Each category is reviewed by at least two judges. Our most prestigious category, Magazine of the Year, has been judged by as many as 20 judges in a given competition year. Judges are invited to indicate the categories they are most interested in scoring on our judge sign-up form; final judge selections for each category are made based on interest, the number of categories a judge is willing to cover, and to reduce possible conflicts of interest.

Judges are allotted at least one month to evaluate the entries. Our Awards Committee highly recommends dividing your entries across the number of days you have to judge them — in most cases, this is one to two entries per day. Judges review each entry's essay describing the publication's mission, the enterprising work that went into the entry and its significance to readers. Entries are scored on three to seven major criteria for most categories, with each criterion having "sub-criteria" questions to guide judges.

We ask our judges to be clear and honest in explaining any potential for bias or conflict of interest they may have as they review their entries. As a part of this process, judges may be asked to recuse themselves from a category and be reassigned. The Awards Committee continues to accept judge sign-ups after the start of judging in order to cover these recusals. Judges are not allowed to work on a category they, their colleagues, their publications, or their parent companies have entered; a category with submissions from a direct competitor; or a category with submissions from a former employer they are biased against. Azbee judges have a great track record of disclosing their own conflicts of interest and recusing themselves.

The Awards Committee is supplemented by four "Super Judges" who help facilitate the judging process, check-in with our judges, and who are available to answer our judges' questions. Each Super Judge is assigned responsibility for a Division of categories. Judges will receive the contact information for their co-judges as well as the Super Judge for their Division.

We also look for judges willing to "screen" our largest categories, including Magazine of the Year and Feature Article. Screeners review entries to whittle down the number that go forward for full review and scoring. The screening round is just over two weeks long and precedes the judging round.

According to Karla Monterrosa-Yancey, CAMS, Editor-in-Chief of ACAMSToday, the judging process is highly rewarding:

It's an invaluable experience to network with likeminded peers, having a front-row seat to the latest trends and to give back to the community that has nourished me intellectually and creatively."

What comes next

After judging is complete, judges' ratings are automatically tabulated for an average score per entry. In most cases, the top three scores in each category per region receive the Regional Gold, Silver and Bronze awards, and the top three scores in each category nationwide receive the National Gold, Silver and Bronze awards. The Azbee Awards do have a scoring threshold that must be met for each award level, maintaining the level of excellence required to receive an award. As such, we may not award all levels (gold, silver, bronze) for a given category if entries do not meet this threshold.

With our gratitude

To show our appreciation for their time and willingness to serve, judges earn $5 in Azbee Bucks per scored entry, and there is no cap on how much a judge can earn by completing their categories. Additional Azbee Bucks can be earned by stepping in to cover scoring assignments when other judges are unable to complete theirs. Azbee Bucks can be used for membership dues; future Azbee Awards submissions; and conference, event or webinar registrations. When a judge accumulates $200 or more in Azbee Bucks, $100 of the balance will be earmarked for attending ASBPEvolve 2027, our national conference.

Where to volunteer

All interested judges should fill out our judge sign-up form, in order to provide their contact information and indicate the categories they are interested in scoring. A member of the Awards Committee will confirm each judge's acceptance and be in touch when categories have been assigned.

If current judges or potential volunteers have any questions, please reach out to the Awards Committee through our contact form.

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