The Los Angeles Business Journal won the top award for Best Newspaper as well as for Best Overall Design at a nationwide contest of business news publications.

The awards were given June 26 by the Alliance of Area Business Publishers, the professional organization of business journals and other city- and state-based business news magazines and other publications. The annual contest is independently judged by professors at the University of Missouri’s school of journalism. Awards are given, as in the Olympics, in Gold, Silver and Bronze.

In giving the Gold award for Best Newspaper in the large tabloid category – which is the contest’s top award – the judges said: “This publication is a standout for packing a wide variety of breaking, feature and explanatory news coverage consistently with every issue. The front-cover layout is rich with images, headlines and teasers that attract the reader’s attention. It’s easy to navigate thanks to a table of contents and inside-the-book design features. Engaging writing keeps the reader’s attention. Kudos for the deeply researched lists that employ photos, colors and design in a novel manner.”

Last year, the Business Journal won the Silver award for Best Newspaper, but it won Gold for Best Overall Design.

In giving this year’s Gold award for design, the judges said this: “A generous use of photography and art coupled with attention to detail strengthen these books. The cover images and package hold their own without surrendering to the several stories and promos surrounding them.”

Nina Bays, the Business Journal’s creative and production director, said, “In a time when digital media is all the buzz, to design within a space that appreciates the intricacies and value of print publications such as the Los Angeles Business Journal is rewarding in itself; to be recognized by AABP for the vision shared by our design and editorial teams makes it that much more of an honor.”

Charles Crumpley, the editor-in-chief, said, “It’s rewarding to work with smart and driven people, but it’s special to work with people who also are exceptionally talented. The great and rare thing about a contest like this is that it acknowledges and rewards that talent.

“And I am grateful to work at a place where talent is not just allowed but encouraged.”

Newspapers compete against each other in large, medium and small categories; Los Angeles is in the large category. Its sister publication, the San Fernando Valley Business Journal, competes in the small category.

The Valley business journal also won the Gold award for Best Newspaper in the small category, the sixth time in the last seven years it won that honor. And it won the Gold award for Best Overall Design, the seventh time in the last nine years it won the top award in that category. 

Crumpley and Bays and their respective teams also produce the Valley newspaper.