Aerospace Journalist of the Year Awards

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This article is about the international Aerospace Journalist of the Year Awards (AJOYA), issued from 1996 to 2009-2010 by the World Leadership Forum, Ltd, of London, England, U.K., in conjunction with the Farnborough Air Show (England) and the Paris Air Show (France).

Contents

AJOYA should not be confused with the Australia's "Aviation Journalist of the Year" Awards, issued by that country's National Aviation Press Club (at least during 2010, in Sydney, Australia). Those awards were restricted to writers from Australia and New Zealand. [1]

Overview

The international Aerospace Journalist of the Year Awards (AJOYA) were awards for writers and broadcasters working in the aerospace and aviation field, including specialists and those working for non-specialist titles. The awards dinner took place in mid-July (timed to coincide with the Farnborough Air Show and the Paris Air Show), and brought together aviation media and industry representatives.

The awards were organised between 1996 [2] and 2010 by Malcolm Turner and his company (the World Leadership Forum, Ltd, of the UK) under the auspices of the Royal Aeronautical Society of the U.K. and the Aero Club of France (Aéro-Club de France). [3]

The awards, given annually, were typically organized in a hierarchy:


...which judges narrowed down to...


...from which, based on judges' scores, were selected...


...from which were selected, based on judges' scores...


...and an additional award...

Trophies

The AJOYA awards were originally trophies in the form of a bronze eagle - leading the awards to become known colloquially as 'budgies', and for the competition to become known as the 'Budgie Awards'. The design of the trophy changed several times, becoming a representation of the Aerospace Journalist of the Year logo, and then a simple engraved glass 'spike'.

History

The aerospace industry's writing awards, previously for many years (1960s to mid-/late 1990s), had been awarded annually by the U.S.-based Aviation & Space Writers' Association, at a grand banquet gathering aviation industry leaders and luminaries. That organization and its awards program dissolved, leaving a vacuum in the aviation media world.

Starting in the late 1990s, until 2009-2010, that void was filled by a British enterprise—the World Leadership Forum, Ltd. -- in collaboration with the world's two oldest aviation organizations: the Aero Club of France (Aéro-Club de France), and the Royal Aeronautical Society (of the United Kingdom). [4]

Awards were issued in several "Category" topic areas (see lists below).

Contest entries (copies of published articles or broadcasts) were received from publications and authors, then copied and redistributed to judges in each category, who then narrowed the submissions down to a few finalists (the prestigious "Shortlist") in each category, which was then published on the organization website during the months leading up to the banquet.

The "Shortlist" candidates were invited to the Awards Banquet, where they would then discover who, among them, would be awarded the "Aerospace Journalist of the Year Award" in that respective category. Then from the category winners, a tally of judges' scores determined the one overall "Aerospace Journalist of the Year," and one Honoree for a "Decade of Excellence" Award.

The awards were first presented in London in 1996, and throughout the years, the presentation ceremonies have alternated between Paris and London—roughly coinciding with the world's two main airshows: the Paris Air Show and Farnborough Air Show (England), held on alternate years.

In London, the AJOYA ceremonies have taken place at the Ballroom of the Park Lane Hotel, Piccadilly, [5] and at the Royal Courts of Justice and they directly preceded the biennial Farnborough Airshow.

The organization depended upon aerospace industry companies to sponsor the awards, and reciprocated their generosity by offering them seating with the AJOYA finalists at the awards banquet—a public-relations opportunity for aerospace industry leaders and P.R. execs to charm their industry's leading writers and opinion-shapers.

However, remotely located from most of the world's aviation media (in London or Paris, far removed from the Americas, Africa and Asia), many aerospace writers who made the awards-finalist "Shortlists" (and were thus invited to the banquet), were unable to attend—undermining the value of the banquet, and sponsorships, to AJOYA's commercial sponsors.

The awards then began to be limited to only those writers who would make the trip to the banquet, sharply reducing eligibility for the awards.

Initially, relatively few of the world's aerospace journalists competed, and the awards were almost exclusively from the U.S. and Britain, with a few contestants from Western Europe and British Commonwealth nations.

However, as the years went by, many more entered the contests, and additional categories of judging were added, and non-English entries were admitted (and translated into English for the judges), drawing contest entries from throughout the world—Russia and Eastern Europe, China and East Asia, South Asia, Latin America and Africa.

The volume of entries began to overwhelm the limited number of AJOYA judges, creating difficulties.

The global economic "Great Recession" that started in 2007 soon collapsed the aerospace industry, and forced drastic budget-tightening on nearly all aerospace companies. "Extras"—such as support of aviation organizations and programs—were cut out of many companies' budgets.

The awards ended amid rumours that they folded due to a lack of sponsorship.

The World Leadership Forum, Ltd. organization dissolved in 2009, according to the business-info website Duedil.com. [3]

The AJOYA.com website is now off-line and the domain name is for sale.

There were no awards in 2011, and in 2012 a different organiser held a new Aerospace Media Awards dinner at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London.

Judges

Judges were chiefly leading aerospace industry editors & writers, and business/technical leaders & experts—largely chosen from the ranks of former AJOYA winners or "Shortlist" finalists—from around the world.

The judges came from aerospace industry publications such as:

To ensure fair judging, judges were recused from voting on their own submissions, and from voting on any other submissions from any publication for whom they wrote, or any "sister" publication (owned by the same, or a related, company).

The final list of AJOYA judges (see below) finished with the note: "The judges have not marked any entry from their own publication/company, or any sister publication/company"

This is the last list of judges, which remained on the AJOYA.com website until 2010:

2009 Judges:

Categories

The categories for the awards include:

Winners

Winners are grouped below into:

THE DECADE OF EXCELLENCE Award

THE AEROSPACE JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR:

The CATEGORY WINNERS in each category,
for each year were:

BEST AIR SHOW SUBMISSION


BEST AIR SHOW DAILY


BEST AIR TRANSPORT SUBMISSION


BEST AVIONICS SUBMISSION


BEST BREAKING NEWS SUBMISSION


BEST BUSINESS AIRCRAFT SUBMISSION


BEST BUSINESS OR FINANCIAL SUBMISSION


BEST DEFENCE SUBMISSION


BEST ENVIRONMENT SUBMISSION


BEST GENERAL AVIATION SUBMISSION


BEST MAINTENANCE SUBMISSION


BEST PROPULSION SUBMISSION


BEST REGIONAL AIRCRAFT SUBMISSION


BEST SAFETY SUBMISSION


BEST SPACE SUBMISSION


BEST SYSTEMS OR TECHNOLOGY SUBMISSION

See also

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References

  1. ↑ For more on those awards in 2010, see: "Australian Aviation’s McLaughlin ‘Aviation Journalist of the Year’", on australianaviation.com.au December 6, 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Air Safety Week's David Evans Wins International Aerospace Journalist of the Year Award" (POTOMAC, MD, July 22, 2004), posted July 23 2004 on swissair111.org
  3. 1 2 "The World Leadership Forum Limited" page, in the business-information database-website Duedil.com
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "Craig Covault Wins 2009 Aerospace Journalist of the Year Award", Chuck Oldham (Editor) on July 16, 2009, DefenseMediaNetwork.com
  5. 1 2 "Vayu nominated again for The 2010 Aerospace Journalist of the Year Awards" Archived 2012-04-10 at the Wayback Machine , Vayu Aerospace and Defence Review, posted in 2010
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Aviation Week Editors Win Six Aerospace Journalist of the Year Awards", Aviation Week & Space Technology, posted July 26, 2006 on SpaceRef.com.
  7. 1 2 "AIN Writers Honored" Aviation International News, by Nigel Moll, July 2007, posted July 6, 2007.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 AVIATION WEEK Editors Claim Seven International Aerospace Journalist of the Year Awards, Aviation Week press release, as reproduced from PRnewsire.com on Reuters.com, 2008-07-13
  9. 1 2 3 4 "FARNBOROUGH: Flightglobal sweeps the boards at journalism awards", by Murdo Morrison, from Flight International, London posted on FlightGlobal.com 20 Jul 2010
  10. 1 2 "AIN is World’s Top Airshow Daily Again" Aviation International News, July 2009, posted June 29, 2009.
  11. ↑ "AIN wins aerospace journalism award" Aviation International News, August, 2006, posted online September 14, 2006.
  12. 1 2 "Aerospace Journalist of the Year", Robert Mark, JetWhine.com, June 22, 2007
  13. ↑ "Nicola Clark" (summary biography), New York Times, New York City, New York, USA, as viewed May 5, 2013
  14. 1 2 "FLYER wins Aerospace Journalist of the Year award", Flyer magazine, Seager Publishing, UK, First Posted 17 Jul 2006 Archived November 22, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  15. ↑ "Aaron Karp" (summary biography), Air Transport World, atwonline.com, as viewed 2013-05-05
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