What's New for the 2027 Azbee Awards

The 2027 Azbee Awards of Excellence open for submissions on Monday, Nov. 2, 2026. And we're making big changes this year to improve our submissions, judging and awards processes!

ASBPE's Awards Committee updates the Azbee Awards every year based on feedback from entrants and judges. Here are the major updates for the 2027 Azbee Awards.

Watch for These Improvements:

• We're honoring tradition by changing our divisions to Editorial, Design and Overall Excellence. This will help you find categories more quickly. You'll see these updates on our category page soon.

• Our category descriptions will be easier to read and digest, so you can gauge whether your content is a good fit. For each category you'll find three key pieces: requirements, guidelines, and what not to submit.

• Our new, six-region system creates more parity between higher- and lower-entry regions. You'll see this update on our regions page soon.

• We're starting promotion earlier this year. For now, you’ll find entry deadlines, screening and judging dates, and event dates on our welcome page. 

• We're eliminating certificate holders. This was a hard decision, but ultimately it's fiscally and environmentally responsible. And we'll pass savings to you.

• While we're passing savings along, we're also changing how we handle certificates. You'll no longer pay for those upfront, winner or not. We'll offer the opportunity to order certificates after winners are announced, and while we have them in stock, you can order the holder as an add-on. We'll continue to share digital awards badges with our winners, so you can choose how you want to celebrate.

• About those savings: We’re passing them to you in your member discount. Members now receive a $115 discount for every submission. Freelancer members, you still receive an additional $20 discount. And those still stack with your early-bird savings. Seriously, sign up for membership (it’s $100 or less) and submit by Dec. 15.

• We love our Azbee judges. Now, each judge will receive $5 in Azbee Bucks per scored entry (e.g., a 10-entry category is worth $50, a 20-entry category is worth $100, and so on). Azbee Bucks can be used for most ASBPE expenses. There’s no cap to how much you can earn, but if you earn $200 or more, we’ll earmark $100 for ASBPEvolve Summit registration.

• We have a new judge agreement you’ll sign when you apply to judge. It covers professional standards and objectivity, our conflicts of interest policy, confidentiality, entrant feedback, rewards (Azbee Bucks) and the commitment to judge.

• We’ll also launch a peer choice award, letting you nominate your favorite entry from the whole competition. You aren’t allowed to vote for your own publication, but we want you to see (and learn from) the best of the best. Stay tuned for more details and help us celebrate the best of the best in B2B!

• Watch our email announcements for more details. If you are not an ASBPE member, you can join our email list here.

Submitting to the Azbees:

• All ASBPE members receive a $115 per-entry discount, and freelance members receive an additional $20 per-entry discount. These discounts stack with early-bird savings.

• We recommend submitting as many entries as possible before the Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2026 early-bird savings deadline. After that, our deadlines provide additional time to enter the content you are creating later in the year. The regular entry deadline is Monday, Jan. 11, 2027, and the final late entry deadline is Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2027.

• Our Eligibility & Rules page consolidates key information: publication and entry eligibility criteria; member discount, login and submission guidelines; the Azbee Awards payment and refund policy; rules regarding stock images and generative AI; as well as permitted exceptions.

New Categories:

• Get the Individual recognition you deserve! Our coveted Best Body of Work award recognizes one staff journalist, one freelance journalist and one designer for their portfolio of 2026 work. Winners demonstrate creativity, range, impact, skill and craft across their top five work products from the year.

• Our Best Conversion from Print to Web category celebrates publications who converted their print magazine to a new website in 2026. Both publications that have moved to digital-only and those that have transitioned to hybrid publishing may compete in this category.

• For design teams that go above-and-beyond for singular issues, Best Design for a Single Issue is the category for your best-designed regular issue, special issue or supplement.

Category Updates:

• You'll find all categories under three divisions: Overall Excellence (our top honors), Editorial (including our multimedia categories), and Design.

• Categories from our former Print and Online divisions have merged (a process we've been working toward for several years with our former All Content division).

• We'll now have three types of subgroups under our most competitive categories. When we receive higher entry numbers to these categories, we'll award these subgroups separately. The description for each category with subgroups will clarify how to select your subgroup.

  • Magazine of the Year retains its "11 or Fewer Issues per Year" and "12 or More Issues per Year" subgroups.

  • Some categories will be split between "Industry" and "Association" subgroups, to recognize and award these publishing groups separately.

  • For other categories, we'll recognize content differences with "Static" and "Multimedia" subgroups or "Print and "Digital" subgroups.

• You'll soon see a fully updated category page that reflects our division changes, the new subgroups, and revised category descriptions that more clearly outline requirements, guidelines, and what not to submit.

• Category updates for 2027:

  • Coming soon!

• Key 2026 Updates to remember:

  • Requirements and judging criteria for the Digital Magazine of the Year category were updated to reflect the evolution of and new innovations in digital issues.

  • The Front Cover categories and Opening Page/Spread categories were each combined into a single category.

  • The Breaking News Coverage category allows tracker articles.

  • The Special Issue or Supplement category no longer requires a prior regular issue, so publications that no longer print regularly, but have special print issues, can submit.

  • The Podcast category now accepts "video podcasts," however judges still will focus on audio only.

Judging:

• Judges now earn $5 in Azbee Bucks for each entry scored (e.g., a category with 10 submissions yields $50; 20 submissions yields $100). There is no cap on how much you can earn, though the Awards Committee endeavors to distribute judging workloads fairly. Additional Azbee Bucks can be earned by stepping in to cover scoring assignments other judges cannot complete.

• Azbee Bucks may be applied toward most ASBPE expenses, including future Azbee Awards submissions; membership dues; and conference, event or webinar registrations. When a judge accumulates $200 or more in Azbee Bucks, $100 of the balance will be earmarked for ASBPEvolve Summit registration. 

• Judges will now see a Judging Agreement when they apply to judge. This reviews our expectations for professional standards, objectivity, confidentiality, and entrant feedback; our conflicts of interest policy; and Azbee Bucks rewards and guidelines.

As always, if you have ideas and feedback for the Azbee Awards, please reach out to the Awards Committee through our contact form.

How to Enter:

Members: Starting Nov. 2, 2026, use our members login button with your ASBPE.org username and password. Signing in via your member account is the only way to access member discounts inside the Azbee Awards system. We highly recommend renewing and updating your profile on ASBPE.org before beginning the entry process, as your entry form contact information auto-fills from your member account.

Non-Members: If you are not an ASBPE member, you can create a non-member account and start submitting entries on Nov. 2, 2026. However, any entries created via a non-member profile will not be eligible for ASBPE member discounts. Please consider becoming an ASBPE member.

The online entry system will walk you through the steps to submit an entry. Submit as many entries as you like, and then pay for all your submissions at once with a simple checkout system. You also may submit and pay for entries one at a time. Please remember to save each invoice. We require PDFs for print entries, URLs for web entries, or a combination. View our submission requirements to help you prepare your entries.

Please review our eligibility requirements and submission rules, categories, entry fees and deadlines and regions before submitting. (These pages will be updated soon!)

Log in or create a new account to submit your entries!

Important Notes & Entry Deadlines:

• Early-Bird Savings Deadline: Save $30 per entry off the standard entry fee by submitting before Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2026, at 8 p.m. ET.

• Regular Entry Deadline: Monday, Jan. 11, 2027, at 8 p.m. ET

• Late Entry Deadline: Entries received after the regular deadline and through Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2027, at 11:59 p.m. ET will include an additional $20 late entry fee.

• Note: There will be no deadline extensions. The late entry period allows additional time to enter all categories for an additional fee of $20 per entry.

• Judges Earn & Learn: Apply to be an Azbee judge today!

• Support hours: Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. ET.

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