Professor Don Ranly Wins Lifetime Achievement Award from B2B Editors Group

Columbia, Mo. (April 28, 2005) -- Don Ranly, who helped pioneer the concept of "service journalism" as a professor at the Missouri School of Journalism, has been selected by the American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE) to receive the organization's 2005 Lifetime Achievement Award.

Don Ranly

Ranly defines service journalism with three words - useful, usable, and used - distinctions based on his conviction that efforts to benefit readers won't work unless information is easy to access and, ultimately, helps lead readers to significant action. In addition to his teaching, Ranly has promulgated his vision of service journalism through more than 900 professional seminars and workshops, where he is recognized for his stimulating presentations, which themselves are designed to be useful, usable and used.

"Dr. Ranly's own service to B2B publishing is a testament to every corporate executive, mid-level manager, engineer, or other professional who reads business and trade publications to learn what useful ideas they can incorporate into their business," said Robert Freedman, ASBPE president and senior editor of Realtor magazine.

Respected publication designer and consultant Jan White said of Ranly: "He doesn't just think clearly, which is what a professor of journalism is supposed to do. He also sees clearly, which is what few word-people bother to do. He knows that words-in-type have physical shape that affects the way their meaning is perceived. He even admits that readers are at first lookers, whom we must persuade to become readers."

Ranly, ASBPE's sixth Lifetime Achievement recipient, has served as a newspaper reporter, magazine editor, weekly columnist and broadcast journalist. The co-author of several textbooks, he has also won numerous awards for his teaching.

ASBPE will present the award to Ranly at its National Awards of Excellence Banquet on June 21 in Cleveland, at the Rock + Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

Based in Wheaton, Ill., ASBPE is the nation's only professional association for editors and writers who work on business, trade, association, and professional magazines and their related Internet publications. The society is known for its annual editorial and design Awards of Excellence for magazines, newsletters, and Web sites, and for its annual National Editorial Conference.