The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, is a great place to celebrate. ENR was among the award winners honored there at the June 21 gala of the American Society of Business Publication Editors.

It was fun to see the jacket John Lennon wore on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. And it was a delight to revisit the site where I reported a cover story about the construction of the museum (ENR 10/31/94 p. 34). ENR editors love the drama of construction and see lots of it, but we don’t always get to experience the project fully realized.

Gold, silver. ENR won in feature series and special editorial sections.

I proudly carried home two excellence awards in the editorial competition, which drew 2,610 entries this year. ENR’s team led by construction economics editor Timothy J. Grogan won a gold award for feature series for 2004 coverage of the steel price crisis. A team led by business editor Richard Korman won a silver award in the special section category for coverage of construction rescues with the story, "Minutes to Live" (ENR 11/22/04 p. 23).

But most inspiring was the message of Don Ranly, ASBPE’s 2005 Lifetime Achievement Award winner. Ranly, a professor emeritus of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, helped pioneer the concept of service journalism–a concept ENR takes very seriously. Service journalism, Ranly says, is journalism that is useful, usable and used. He also emphasizes good editing, integrity and credibility, which is lost without editorial independence.

Ranly further explained with the words of George Washington, who called magazines "easy vehicles of knowledge, more happily calculated than any other, to preserve the liberty, stimulate the industry and meliorate the morals of an enlightened and free people." Ranly added, "Sounds to me a little like business-to-business journalism...to stimulate an industry, to serve an industry, to help an industry succeed. How simple. A good B2B book says to its industry, we’re here to help you."

That was the goal of ENR’s award-winning stories–to present journalism that makes a difference in construction.

JANICE L. TUCHMAN
Editor-in-Chief