Chesapeake Family magazine won seven awards at the Parenting Media Association’s annual conference in Baltimore last weekend.
PMA’s Editorial and Design Awards Competition recognizes excellence in journalism, photography and design. The magazine won awards for the Big Book of Health design and writing, feature and column writing, and illustrations.
“I am so proud of my staff,” said Chesapeake Family Publisher Donna Jefferson. “They work very hard and it is wonderful when they earn recognition for their hard work.”
Chesapeake Family’s 2014-15 Big Book of Health won a silver award in general excellence for writing and design and a gold award for overall writing.
“Authoritative reporting, lively writing and an impressive diversity of health-related topics make this important magazine an easy but rewarding read,” the judges commented about the Big Book of Health.
The magazine also earned two gold awards for illustrations by Yunju Yang, including the cover of the January 2014 issue of a Boy Scout riding an eagle and an illustration in the same issue for a story on apps that track kids.
A story in the October issue by Allison Eatough about a local boy with synesthesia took a silver award in the competitive general feature writing category. “Eli’s Super Senses,” was noted for its “perceptive look at synesthesia, a somewhat mysterious condition that has been described for centuries but only recently examined by scientific research. … The writer charts the family’s discovery of the boy’s sensory gift with such precision that the reader not only learns about the phenomenon, but also how parents handled it.”
The Breaking Eggs monthly nutrition and cooking column by Christine Van Bloem won a silver award. Christine also has a weekly Breaking Eggs blog on the Chesapeake Family website. The Family Fun column was also recognized with a bronze award for “Take the Family to Philly” by Karen Stysley and “5 Totally cool and unusual museums,” by Katie Riley.
There were 630 entries in 31 editorial and design categories this year. Awards are given in three circulation groups.
“The purpose of the PMA awards competition is to encourage a high level of journalistic performance and service to communities by recognizing editorial excellence and outstanding visual presentation in parenting publications,” said PMA Executive Director C. James Dowden.
