Zannino, Smith, McCurdy among executives honored

BtoB's Media Business announced the winners of this year's Top Innovators in Business Publishing in its May issue.

Media Business inaugurated the Top Innovators in 2004 to spotlight media executives who are constantly thinking of new ways to extend their brands and, in an increasingly digital age, develop a robust Web presence.

"Our annual Media Business Innovators Awards were created to honor those who have impacted our business in a truly innovative way over the past year, leading their publications, companies, Web sites and departments in ways that all of us in the publishing business can learn from," said Bob Felsenthal, publisher of BtoB and Media Business.

He added: "With 16 winners from 14 different companies, this year's choices are truly a cross section of the best in our business. With the current focus on change in the media world, our group of CEO innovators is particularly successful in leading companies to multichannel media options for readers and marketing solutions for advertisers."

Awards are given in six categories: top executive, publisher, editor, online, circulation and production. The categories are divided into three divisions: large trade, small trade (less than $200 million in annual revenue) and general business. Individual publications are divided between those with more than $7 million in annual revenue and those with less.

The awards will be presented June 5 at the Hilton New York.

This year's winners are:

Top Executive

• Large: Tad Smith, CEO, Reed Business Information
• Small: Charles McCurdy, CEO, Canon Communications
• General: Richard Zannino, CEO, Dow Jones & Co.

Publisher

• Large: Evilee Ebb, CEO-publisher, Network World
• Small: Bob Bragdon, publisher, CIO
• General: Paul Rossi, publisher, The Economist, North America

Editor

• Large: Ellen Koteff, editor in chief, Nation's Restaurant News
• Small: Glenn Zorpette, executive editor, IEEE Spectrum
• General: Paul Maidment, editor, Forbes.com

Online

• Large: Colin Crawford, senior VP-online, IDG Communications
• Small: Mark Harling, VP-business development, Putman Media
• General: Vivek Shah, president-digital publishing, Time Inc.

Circulation

• Large: Joy Puzzo, corporate circulation director, Advanstar Communications
• Small: Leann Sandifar, audience development director, Ascend Media

Production

• Large: Marie Myers, senior VP-manufacturing, CMP Technology

  Small: Robert Brai, production director, Northstar Travel Media