Fleet Owner wins Neal Award for commentary

NEW YORK. The monthly “Editor’s Page” column by Fleet Owner editor-in-chief Jim Mele was named winner of a 2013 Jesse H. Neal Award for Best Commentary.  Sponsored by American Business Media (ABM), the Neal Awards have been honoring excellence in business journalism for 59 years, and are considered “the Pulitzer Prize of business media,” according to ABM.

In announce “Editor’s Page” as best commentary in the mid-size media category, the Neal judges cited three editorials from 2012 for their clear focus on issues of importance to their audience.

Two other Fleet Owner entries were also named as finalists in this year’s Neal Awards. “The Truth About Fuel Additives” (Aug. 2012) by Sean Kilcarr was one of four stories identified by the judges as a finalist in the Best Technical Feature category. And in a new category honoring cross-platform media projects, Fleet Owner was chosen as a finalist for its Blue Fleets coverage, which includes a special supplement to the magazine (Nov. 2011), a dedicated web page and a Facebook page devoted to the use of natural gas in commercial vehicles.

The judging panel for this year’s Neal Awards was chaired by New York Times financial reporter Diana B. Henriques, and included Allen Wastler, managing editor of CNBC.com and Abe Peck, professor emeritus and director of Business-to-Business Communications at Northwestern Univ.’s Medill School of Journalism.