Nevada Magazine accepts award in Atlantic City

Nevada Magazine editor Matthew B. Brown holds up the 2008 National Headliner Awards program at the Sheraton Atlantic City Convention Center Hotel on May 17. Photo by Jarrod LopiccoloI have to admit “award-winning Nevada Magazine” has a nice ring to it — OK, award-winning NevadaMagazine.com to be exact. Recently I had the pleasure of traveling to Atlantic City to accept our company's first-place prize at the 2008 National Headliner Awards banquet. We took top honors in the Magazine Affiliated Online Journalism category, beating out CNNMoney.com and Newsweek.com, which took second and third, respectively. Jarrod Lopiccolo, business director for Noble Studios in Carson City, accompanied me on the trip. Jarrod and his team (a big compliment to Roy Lindauer) helped us redesign our site last summer, and I figured the invite was a nice way to say thank you.

Held at the Sheraton Atlantic City Convention Center Hotel on May 17, such prestigious media outlets as The Boston Globe, ESPN, Associated Press, and Sports Illustrated were represented at the banquet. What an honor it is to be listed in the same program among those businesses — and to sit in the same room. I met such distinguished colleagues as Melissa Cornick-Horyn, a mastermind behind the programming of such shows as 20/20 and Dateline NBC.

As an avid sports fanatic, it was serendipitous to sit at the same table as a few creative heads at ESPN.com. Their team won a first-place award in the Television Affiliated Online Journalism category for their story “Ray of Hope,” about organ donation and University of North Carolina mascot and student Jason Ray, who died last year. It was a cordial ceremony, as each first-place winner was announced and had their picture taken in front of a National Headliner Awards logo. Each grand-prize winner made a short speech.

Speaking of grand-prize winners, Dallas Morning News photographer Melanie Burford chatted with Jarrod and I as we rode the shuttle from Atlantic City to Philadelphia to catch our return flight on Sunday morning (Southwest Airlines doesn't fly into Atlantic City). I admit I don't remember the conversation all that well, considering we caught the shuttle at 5 a.m. — that's 2 a.m. Pacific time! I was fighting sleep, but Melanie told us some of her tales from a career that began in New Zealand in the early '90s. She was part of a team that won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of Hurricane Katrina. Kind of puts a puny little first-place Web award into perspective, doesn't it?

Brown poses fpr a picture on the famous Atlantic City Boardwalk. Photo by Jarrod LopiccoloSome other highlights of the trip: