SGC Horizon’s Professional Builder Receives 2015 Jesse H. Neal Award and Inaugural Mattera Mentor Award

Arlington Heights, IL (April 2, 2015) — SGC Horizon’s Professional Builder magazine was among the winners of the Association of Business Information & Media Companies’ (ABM) 2015 Jesse H. Neal Awards. Established in 1955, the Jesse H. Neal Award is recognized as the “Pulitzer Prize of the business press.” The winners, selected for exhibiting journalistic enterprise, service to the industry and editorial craftsmanship, were announced at a banquet on March 27.

Professional Builder won the 2015 Neal Award in the Best Commentary category for Contributing Editor Scott Sedam’s columns. In addition, Professional Builder’s Editorial Director Denise Dersin was the first-ever recipient of the Marianne Dekker Mattera Mentor Award, established in 2015 to recognize an editor whose dedicated mentoring of less-experienced and younger colleagues has helped advance their careers in B2B media. Sister publication Building Design+Construction (BD+C) took home Neal Awards for Best -Subject-Related Package and Best Newsletter.

Professional Builder was one of four finalists in three other Neal Award categories: Best Theme Issue of a Magazine or Newspaper for its May Housing Giants issue; Best Profile for its “Doing the Right Thing” article; and Best-Subject-Related Package for its “Housing Giants 2014” feature. SGC Horizon publications dominated the latter category, claiming three out of four finalist positions, including BD+C’s winning “Technology Report 2014” feature.

“It was a very exciting day for Professional Builder and for SGC/SGC Horizon’s editorial teams,” says Dersin. “Being named a finalist is quite an accomplishment, considering the quantity and quality of publication entries from across the country. Receiving the Neal Award from our peers is an incredible honor.”

SGC Horizon/Scranton Gillette Communications’ publications had a total of three Neal Awards, the Mattera Mentor Award, and 11 finalist honors in the 2015 Neal Awards Competition, which drew more than 700 entries according to ABM.

For more information on the print, digital, website and event properties owned by Scranton Gillette Communications/SGC Horizon, visit www.scrantongillette.com. For more information on Professional Builder, visit www.ProBuilder.com.