The great coverage you see in INSIDER is powered by an intelligent, effective and dynamic editorial staff. I know because I work with these wonderful editors every day. But today, we got worldwide recognition with a nomination for Editorial Team of the Year from Folio. Other editorial teams nominated for this award are from Newsweek, HGTV Magazine and more.
But we didn’t stop there.
INSIDER was also nominated for Series of Articles in a Business-to-Business Publication for coverage of the New York Attorney General’s investigation. And our sister publications Petfood & Animal Nutrition 2.0 and PersonalTech MD were nominated for B2B Standalone Digital Magazine (“The Science of Supplements") and B2B Website, respectively.
Folio’s annual awards program spans all corners of the magazine publishing industry, recognizing the best in editorial and design. It’s the most comprehensive and prestigious awards program of its kind in the industry. Award winners will be named in October. INSIDER was also nominated in last year’s Folio’s awards.
For 20 years, Natural Products INSIDER has served the nutrition industry, and in the past five years, INSIDER—and all of publishing—has had to evolve and respond to a changing market for content. The B2B audience is looking for quality content from a trusted brand delivered in myriad ways and on demand. The INSIDER content team has lead Informa Exhibitions in adapting to meet the market’s needs and transitioning from a print-centric model to a multi-faceted content platform.
In 2014, INSIDER produced 63 different assets (i.e., reports, digital issues, print issues), plus a documentary, two digital summits, close to 40 videos, dozens of blogs and countless online articles. This content drove continued engagement from the audience, which has grown in five years from zero registered users to more than 25,000, a 33-percent increase in 2014 alone.
This is not done without a team dedicated to excellence. Heather Granato, vice president of content at Informa’s Global Health and Nutrition Network (herself a Folio Top Woman in Media), sets a high bar for quality content that streams down to each Informa brand, including INSIDER.
The INSIDER team includes senior editor Steve Myers, who has close to 15 years of experience of natural products journalism. He excellently covers a wide range of topics from regulations to science and marketing issues. What to hear what’s happening on Capitol Hill or understand how amino acids work? Then, read his work.
Josh Long, our legal and regulatory editor, puts his law degree and passion for journalism to work as he has explores issues ranging from GMO labeling to GMP compliance and FDA happenings.
Our managing editors Rachel Adams and Kate Lloyd keep us on track with their organizational skills. They are rock stars at ensuring we meet our deadlines, are great on camera (examples here and here) and give us a fresh perspective on the industry.
And me, as editor in chief, with such a great staff, I can focus on thinking strategically about how to develop integrated content plans that connects our print issues, digital programs and our live events, and deliver the best content to our audience in platforms that make sense.
The entire staff—along with knowledgeable contributed writers—helped us cover the story of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s investigation of herbal supplements. On Feb. 3, 2015, The New York Times broke the story that DNA testing found adulteration and contamination of store brand herbal products as GNC, Walgreens, Target and Walmart. The investigation quickly expanded to include more supplement manufacturers, with more attorneys general calling for more regulations and class action lawsuits filed against the affected companies. However, the supplement industry questioned the appropriateness of the testing method used to identify ingredients and has stood by the quality of its products.
In this series of articles, INSIDER discussed the wide-reaching nature of the investigation, the supplement industry’s demands for Schneiderman to release the full testing methods and results, the potential fallout in Congress and FDA, and what the agreement between GNC and Schneiderman means for the rest of the industry. While INSIDER as offered numerous articles on this topic, the four that garnered us the nomination are:
- “Eric Schneiderman’s Continuing Crusade Against Supplements" pg 8 of INSIDER’s March/April 2015 by Josh Long
- “Industry Demands NY AG to #ReleaseTheReport" by Sandy Almendarez
- “How the New York Attorney General Case Affects Congress" by Steve Myers
- “The Costs of the GNC Agreement with the New York Attorney General" by Pete Croatto, Supplement Perspectives Manager of INSIDER
I am so proud of the work INSIDER does, and am overjoyed that we’re again being recognized by Folio. INSIDER’s number one goal is to inform natural product companies as they grow their businesses, and it is satisfying to do that and get kudos for our content.