I'm pleased to report to you that Managing Automation recently won three editorial awards from the American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE), a professional association for writers and editors in the business press.

In a competition that drew more than 2,600 submissions, MA won awards for a feature article on the pharmaceutical industry; the February 2005 cover, titled "Unraveling NetWeaver"; and for two Next opinion columns written by Robert Malone.

The pharma story, titled "An Rx for Drug Counterfeiting" (May 2005), details how Purdue Pharma LP and other drug manufacturers are using RFID technology to combat the rising problem of pharmaceutical counterfeiting. It was written by contributing editor Beth Stackpole, edited by executive editor Jeff Moad, and designed by design director Robert Clark. All three were cited by the ASBPE for their work.

Clark was also singled out for his accomplishment on the February 2005 cover. The cover, which showed two (very cute) kittens tangled up in a ball of blue string, led into an in-depth story on SAP's software infrastructure plan called NetWeaver. Executive editor Moad's 10-page report "unraveled" for readers every aspect of the SAP platform.

Malone won for two columns published in 2005: "The Genie in the Monitor" (August) and "Leonardo Flunked Latin" (December).

The individuals involved in winning these awards deserve recognition for their hard work and accomplishments. This type of recognition doesn't come around every year, but when it does, it reminds us of a couple of important ideas.

The first is that many publications, not unlike other enterprises, often have a myopic view of themselves. Writers and editors at magazines, newspapers, and Web sites more often than not believe that they are doing exemplary work. They tell themselves that their articles are well chosen, well reported, designed with flair and excitement, and packaged for accessibility. And they convince themselves they are correct. Some publishing companies, moreover, create their own awards to honor themselves and expect the outside world to accept their accolades as they do.

Some of these internal judgments can be correct. But just as often the self-congratulations can be undeserved. Worse, to the outside world such a display can appear blatantly self-serving.

What's important about awards such as those given by the ASBPE is that they provide a third-party validation of what a publication is doing. It's easy for a publication to say it is doing a great job. It's a lot harder, and much more valuable, to have someone else assess it honestly and openly.

Secondly, awards not only tell a publication what it's doing well, they can also point to what a publication might need to improve. That's because the awards competition itself gives a publication the opportunity to see what many competitive and non-competitive publications are doing. An editorial organization that understands this and takes the whole process seriously can put its publication on a track to continuous improvement, and, one hopes, more awards in the future.