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:
• Our connecting flight from Las Vegas to Philadelphia was delayed 3 1/2 hours due to bad weather on the East Coast.
• A friendly, yet bold, young girl from Las Vegas sat between Jarrod and I on the long flight. We had to answer multiple questions such as “How old are you” and “What’s your favorite song.” At the end of the flight, I gave her my business card and told her, “Tell your parents to subscribe to this fine publication.” Not long after the words come out of my mouth, she blurts it out to her mother so that the whole plane can hear. Her mother says to me, “My parents used to get this magazine.” Perhaps she will carry on the tradition.
• While waiting for our luggage at the Philadelphia International Airport, we chatted with a high-school-aged girl from North Carolina. We told her we were from Nevada, and her response was, “I couldn’t find Nevada on a map.” Apparently, we have work to do here at the Nevada Commission on Tourism.
• Our shuttle driver from Philly to Atlantic City was very fond of the Circus Circus properties in Las Vegas and Reno. He said he had to call all his friends to tell them, “There’s an elephant in my hotel!” The simple things in life.
• There’s no such thing as all-you-can-eat-sushi on the East Coast (probably not true, but that’s the impression I got from the yeah-right response of our waitress).
• On my scale of rating gambling cities, Atlantic City falls somewhere between Reno and Las Vegas — closer to Vegas, of course, with names like Trump, Caesars, and Hilton gracing the skyline. But I have to tell you, even after a day on the boardwalk, Vegas is still king of the casinos!
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