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Lake Lifestyles magazine, part of GateHouse Media's Lake Media group of publications that serves residents in the heart of the Lake of the Ozarks region, did an outstanding job with its piece, the Top 10 Business Women of the Year, for the Jan./Feb. issue. Planning for the package took two months of calling for nominations, selecting judges, tabulating criteria for each winner and compiling information for each of them. The cover photo also took some planning. Organizing a photo shoot for 10 successful business owners certainly was no easy task. The cover design is free of the usual content promos to keep from obscuring the women's faces. Profiles of the women occupy individual pages of the magazine, an edition that likely will be on permanent display in each of these local businesses. If you would like to try this idea for your magazine or newspaper, keep reading. Charis Patires, editor of the magazine for less than a year, answered a few question for this blog on how it all came together. Joe Greco is corporate design director for GateHouse Media. — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — How did you come up with the idea for the Top 10 Business Women of the Year package? The Top 10 Women was something that had never been done here at the Lake. We wanted to honor business women that had made a significant contribution in the community – we did not want it to be turned into a “popularity contest” What can you tell us about the planning of the package? After we came up with the concept, we put together a timeframe in order to pull all of it off, came up with a pretty generic list of criteria, made up ads and called for nominations. I did a few radio spots informing people what we were doing. We promoted it heavily. On the Web site, in all of our news print products and we did a front page story announcing our call for nominations. We started asking for nominations in October. Had a cutoff date for nominations mid-November. We got way more than we anticipated – more than 80. We selected a panel of judges who are involved in local business. One of the judges is the business development specialist for the Missouri Small Business and Technology Development Center, an extension of the University of Missouri. How were these business women selected? Judges rated all applications on a scale of 1-5 in categories such as how actively engaged they are in the business, leadership qualities, ethics, moral values, innovation, vision, etc. Individually, the judges reviewed each nomination, and came together a week later. The total scores determined a list of the top 30. Through a series of additional votes they narrowed the field down. Once we got down to a manageable number, they all discussed and then agreed on the Top 10. It actually sounds like it would have been a long, drawn-out meeting, but in reality, it only took two hours. At that point we only had about three to four weeks before going to press. We immediately called the women, who were thrilled. (See a letter below from one of the winners.) Some didn’t know they were nominated. We set up a photo shoot at a place we had already scoped out. We had gone to the house with 10 people prior to selecting the women to take a test photo so we knew what we were going to shoot and where. On the night of the shoot, we had a two photographers. We had to get headshots of the women in addition to the cover photo and we didn’t want it to take all night. What was the most challenging part of the process and how did you overcome it? It all was challenging because we didn't know what we were getting into or what to expect. We tried to take everything one step at a time, and kept on top of everything as much as possible. Failure was not an option. We'd created too much hype about it that we could not be unsuccessful with this project. It actually went pretty flawless, and we were complemented a lot about the entire process running smoothly. How did you come up with the information that ran with each winner? Joyce Miller (editorial director for Lake Media) and I had a standard list of questions we e-mailed to each of the women. This included bio information as well as questions about their business and how they have managed to be successful. We knew the kind of format we wanted so we kept their profiles to a certain length. We also were adamant about using a standout quote from each of the women that really meant something or had value. I think that really added to the package. What’s the best advice you have for other publications that would like to try this? Start early. Come up with a timetable that works best for you. For your first shot at it don’t set your criteria or list of standards too high. Make sure you are getting the public involved and that they know about it. Stay connected with the people that do not get selected. We sent out letters thanking nominators and to those that were nominated. We also sent out invitations to everyone that was nominated to come to a cocktail party we had to honor the 10 women and to unveil the front cover. That was the first part of January and some of them did show up. At that party we gave each of the women a plaque of the front cover. We really want to grow this event into something bigger each year. We may change a few things, expand on the categories, start earlier. Now this year, we will use some of the top 10 women as our judges for the next round. The Top 10 Business Women of the Year really created a buzz in our community. People were talking about it, asking about it and we got a lot of great feedback. It made an impression and I think really got our readers and the public involved which I think gave us a lot of credibility and spread goodwill in the community. — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — Letter from a Top 10 Business Women of the Year honoree Dear John, Charis, judges, Staff of Lake Media and Lake of the Ozarks Community, Thank you ever so much for the awesome and humbling honor of being selected as one of the top ten business women of Lake of the Ozarks! It's wonderful to be among these talented women! It has been amazing to experience your professional interview, photo shoot, presentation party and to be apart of your acclaimed magazine itself! But yet another strory lies in the amazing outpouring of friends yes, but the many, many people I didn't know, but now do, that read your publications and took time to come by, write, lunch and even send flowers as a response to your article. This is one example of why I love to call the Lake of the Ozarks home...this community of caring people! To the many women who were nominated and those that nominated them, your strength and hard work accomplishes many things and does not go unnoticed nor unappreciated. Again, thank you for this honor, as it 'rouses and renews commitment to enhance the Lake of the Ozarks as a great place to visit and even better place to live in, be a part of and call home! Again with gracious thanks and wishes for continued success, Selynn Barbour Country Crossroads — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — 
Send questions, comments and ideas for blog topics to jgreco@gatehousemedia.com.
Lake Lifestyles magazine, part of GateHouse Media's Lake Media group of publications that serves residents in the heart of the Lake of the Ozarks region, did an outstanding job with its piece, the Top 10 Business Women of the Year, for the Jan./Feb. issue. Planning for the package took two months of calling for nominations, selecting judges, tabulating criteria for each winner and compiling information for each of them. The cover photo also took some planning. Organizing a photo shoot for 10 successful business owners certainly was no easy task. The cover design is free of the usual content promos to keep from obscuring the women's faces. Profiles of the women occupy individual pages of the magazine, an edition that likely will be on permanent display in each of these local businesses. If you would like to try this idea for your magazine or newspaper, keep reading. Charis Patires, editor of the magazine for less than a year, answered a few question for this blog on how it all came together. Joe Greco is corporate design director for GateHouse Media. — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — How did you come up with the idea for the Top 10 Business Women of the Year package? The Top 10 Women was something that had never been done here at the Lake. We wanted to honor business women that had made a significant contribution in the community – we did not want it to be turned into a “popularity contest” What can you tell us about the planning of the package? After we came up with the concept, we put together a timeframe in order to pull all of it off, came up with a pretty generic list of criteria, made up ads and called for nominations. I did a few radio spots informing people what we were doing. We promoted it heavily. On the Web site, in all of our news print products and we did a front page story announcing our call for nominations. We started asking for nominations in October. Had a cutoff date for nominations mid-November. We got way more than we anticipated – more than 80. We selected a panel of judges who are involved in local business. One of the judges is the business development specialist for the Missouri Small Business and Technology Development Center, an extension of the University of Missouri. How were these business women selected? Judges rated all applications on a scale of 1-5 in categories such as how actively engaged they are in the business, leadership qualities, ethics, moral values, innovation, vision, etc. Individually, the judges reviewed each nomination, and came together a week later. The total scores determined a list of the top 30. Through a series of additional votes they narrowed the field down. Once we got down to a manageable number, they all discussed and then agreed on the Top 10. It actually sounds like it would have been a long, drawn-out meeting, but in reality, it only took two hours. At that point we only had about three to four weeks before going to press. We immediately called the women, who were thrilled. (See a letter below from one of the winners.) Some didn’t know they were nominated. We set up a photo shoot at a place we had already scoped out. We had gone to the house with 10 people prior to selecting the women to take a test photo so we knew what we were going to shoot and where. On the night of the shoot, we had a two photographers. We had to get headshots of the women in addition to the cover photo and we didn’t want it to take all night. What was the most challenging part of the process and how did you overcome it? It all was challenging because we didn't know what we were getting into or what to expect. We tried to take everything one step at a time, and kept on top of everything as much as possible. Failure was not an option. We'd created too much hype about it that we could not be unsuccessful with this project. It actually went pretty flawless, and we were complemented a lot about the entire process running smoothly. How did you come up with the information that ran with each winner? Joyce Miller (editorial director for Lake Media) and I had a standard list of questions we e-mailed to each of the women. This included bio information as well as questions about their business and how they have managed to be successful. We knew the kind of format we wanted so we kept their profiles to a certain length. We also were adamant about using a standout quote from each of the women that really meant something or had value. I think that really added to the package. What’s the best advice you have for other publications that would like to try this? Start early. Come up with a timetable that works best for you. For your first shot at it don’t set your criteria or list of standards too high. Make sure you are getting the public involved and that they know about it. Stay connected with the people that do not get selected. We sent out letters thanking nominators and to those that were nominated. We also sent out invitations to everyone that was nominated to come to a cocktail party we had to honor the 10 women and to unveil the front cover. That was the first part of January and some of them did show up. At that party we gave each of the women a plaque of the front cover. We really want to grow this event into something bigger each year. We may change a few things, expand on the categories, start earlier. Now this year, we will use some of the top 10 women as our judges for the next round. The Top 10 Business Women of the Year really created a buzz in our community. People were talking about it, asking about it and we got a lot of great feedback. It made an impression and I think really got our readers and the public involved which I think gave us a lot of credibility and spread goodwill in the community. — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — Letter from a Top 10 Business Women of the Year honoree Dear John, Charis, judges, Staff of Lake Media and Lake of the Ozarks Community, Thank you ever so much for the awesome and humbling honor of being selected as one of the top ten business women of Lake of the Ozarks! It's wonderful to be among these talented women! It has been amazing to experience your professional interview, photo shoot, presentation party and to be apart of your acclaimed magazine itself! But yet another strory lies in the amazing outpouring of friends yes, but the many, many people I didn't know, but now do, that read your publications and took time to come by, write, lunch and even send flowers as a response to your article. This is one example of why I love to call the Lake of the Ozarks home...this community of caring people! To the many women who were nominated and those that nominated them, your strength and hard work accomplishes many things and does not go unnoticed nor unappreciated. Again, thank you for this honor, as it 'rouses and renews commitment to enhance the Lake of the Ozarks as a great place to visit and even better place to live in, be a part of and call home! Again with gracious thanks and wishes for continued success, Selynn Barbour Country Crossroads — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Send questions, comments and ideas for blog topics to jgreco@gatehousemedia.com.
