Leadership Awards

The G.D. Crain, Jr. Award is given annually to an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the development of editorial excellence in business media. The award was established by a grant from the G.D. Crain, Jr., Foundation and includes a distinctive trophy and a check for $1,000. By its name, the award honors the founder of Advertising Age.

Entry Requirements

• Biographical career outline (1,000 word limit)
• At least one complete copy of a magazine produced under the editorial direction of the candidate (digital version).
• Maximum of 3 examples of editorials, articles or other features written by or produced under the direction of the candidate (PDFs)

About the Award

The G.D. Crain, Jr. Award for a Distinguished Editorial Career is given annually to an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the development of editorial excellence in business media. The award was established by a grant from the G.D. Crain, Jr. Foundation and includes both a distinctive trophy and a check for $1,000. By its name, the award honors a great business publication editor, the founder of Business Marketing (which was later named BtoB) and Advertising Age.

A native of Kentucky and an MBA graduate of that state’s Centre College, Gustavus Dedman (G.D.) Crain, Jr. spent his life enveloped in the news business. As a young boy he sold newspapers and, at age 19, joined the staff of the Louisville (KY) Herald newspaper. Two years later, he was made city editor and then sports editor.

Subsequently, he organized a business news service, which produced news and features for nearly 100 business publications. Crain served as head of the firm from its inception until 1916, when he founded Hospital Management, a trade publication serving hospital administrators. One month later, he followed up with what became BtoB, a specialized paper for business media marketers.

Later in 1916, Crain moved his publishing headquarters to Chicago, where he began Advertising Age in 1930. His idea for fast, effective news coverage in the general advertising and marketing field succeeded in lasting out the Depression, and Advertising Age moved steadily onward until it became one of the world’s premier business papers. For some 35 years, Crain wrote a column for Advertising Age titled “Rough Proofs” under the name of Copy Cub.

In 1967, he started his second non-marketing publication, Business Insurance, which was targeted at corporate purchasers of insurance. Automotive News was acquired in 1971, and Pensions & Investments originated in 1973. In later years, Crain’s other publications included American Laundry Digest, American Drycleaner, American Coin Op and American Clean Car (no longer in publication). At various times, he served as president, editor and publisher of the company from its inception until 1964 when he became chairman of the board, a post he held for his remaining years until 1973.

Past Winners

The Timothy White Award recognizes exemplary leadership in the face of challenges and pressures that editors face daily. It is given to an editor whose work displays extraordinary courage, integrity, and passion. This award is named after the longtime editor of Billboard who served as the moral compass of the music industry by tackling controversial issues before he passed away in 2002.

Entry requirements

• Essay that details the editor’s activities over the past two years, showcasing their exemplary editorial integrity. (1,000 word limit)
• One example of the outstanding work created. (PDF)
• A copy of the editor’s publication (digital version)

About the Award

The Timothy White Award was established to acknowledge the daily challenges and pressures that editors face. Named after the longtime editor of Billboard magazine, who passed away in June 2002, the award is given to an editor whose work displays courage, integrity and passion.

Recipients of the Timothy White Award serve as the conscience of their publication and fearlessly support important industry causes. They stand up to outside pressures – whether from advertisers, industry executives or upper management – that threaten to interfere with the goal of placing readers first and maintaining independent, honest and ethical journalism.

Adamant that Billboard cover not only the most acclaimed or famous artists, White regularly wrote about unsung performers in his column, “Music to My Ears,” and was an outspoken advocate of artists’ rights. He often served as the music industry’s moral compass by tackling controversial issues.

He started his career as a copyboy and sports and entertainment writer for the Associated Press in 1972, after graduating from Fordham University. He was managing editor and then senior editor of seminal music magazine Crawdaddy from 1976 to 1978. He served as associate editor and later senior editor at Rolling Stone from 1978 to 1982, where he interviewed such legends as Johnny Carson and Mike Wallace.

White authored several books, including Catch a Fire, an award-winning biography of Bob Marley, and acclaimed biographies on the Beach Boys (The Nearest Faraway Place: Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys, and the Southern California Experience) and James Taylor (Long Ago and Far Away: James Taylor, His Life and Music), as well as a collection of Billboard essays titled “Music to My Ears.” He was awarded four prestigious ASCAP-Deems Taylor Awards for his book Rock Lives: Profiles & Interviews, for his “Music to My Ears” columns, for his 1993 Century Award Portrait of the Artist profile of George Harrison and for his editing of Billboard’s series on work for hire and musical copyrights.

He was also host and co-producer of “Timothy White’s Rock Stars/The Timothy White Sessions,” an award-winning, nationally syndicated radio series.

Past Winners

The McAllister Editorial Fellowship and the McAllister Top Management Fellowship are awarded annually to an editor and an executive, respectively.

These fellowships promote the study of business media, with McAllister Fellows lecturing across the curriculum and meeting with faculty over several days at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. McAllister Fellows receive a crystal bowl and an honorarium.

The fellowships are endowed by Mr. and Mrs. Donald McAllister, Jr.; Ms. Liane E. McAllister; and Geyer-McAllister Publications, in honor of the late Donald McAllister, Sr., and are administered through the Business Press Educational Foundation (BPEF).

There is not an application process for the McAllister Fellowships; editorial winners are selected from the Neal Awards finalists each year.

About the Fellowship

Donald McAllister, Sr. was American Business Media’s chairman in 1955. He was an active figure in specialized business media for over 70 years until his death in 1993, at the age of 91. He was chairman of the executive committee at Geyer-McAllister, one of the country’s oldest family-owned publishing firms until its magazines’ sale to Reed Business Information in 1998.

McAllister’s background in editorial began at Cornell University, where, as an English major, he edited The Cornell Window, one of the Ivy League’s leading literary humor magazines. While at Cornell, he wrote an article about a local gift shop for a new magazine, The Gift and Art Shop, published by a company owned by his uncle, Andrew Geyer. His first job at the company was as assistant editor for that magazine, which today is Gifts & Decorative Accessories.

In 1983, McAllister endowed an essay contest at Cornell’s Johnson School of Business to stimulate excellence in writing. In 1992, in honor of his 70th reunion at Cornell, he created a fund to stimulate business marketing activities at the Johnson School. McAllister later extended his academic affiliations to become a member of the Specialized Business Press Advisory Board at New York University’s Gallatin Division.

Top Editorial Fellows

Top Manager Fellows