Purchasing editor wins business travel journalism award

NBTA names Avery winner of its Business Travel Journalism Award

By Staff -- Purchasing, 3/5/2008 10:02:00 AM

The National Business Travel Association has named Purchasing Senior Editor Susan Avery the winner of its second annual Business Travel Journalism Award. The Association says the award recognizes the journalist who over the last year has done the most to enlighten corporate travel professionals, the business community and the general public about important topics in business travel.

Avery, a 21-year veteran of Purchasing, covers a range of topics for the magazine, particularly trends in maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) and other aspects of indirect purchasing, including the buying of services such as travel.

Procurement professionals are increasingly taking on responsibility for sourcing suppliers and managing expenditures for business travel. To highlight the issues involved, Avery started a new monthly column in Purchasing on corporate travel last September.

We are very proud of the reporting Susan has done in this critical area,” says Publisher Kathy Doyle. Adds Chief Editor Paul Teague, “she has brought to this coverage the same high journalism standards she applies to all her assignments, and our readers and website visitors are benefiting from her efforts.”

NBTA Executive Director & COO, Bill Connors, CTC, said, “Susan’s readers play an increasingly important role in the corporate travel industry. About a third of travel managers now report into Procurement, and even those who are in other departments are working more closely with their Procurement colleagues. Susan has ramped up Purchasing magazine’s coverage of business travel over the last year, including the addition of a new monthly column on the subject -- helping her readers better understand the challenges and joys of travel purchasing.”

The Business Travel Journalism Award is given in memory of Alan Fredericks, long-time travel-industry journalist and former Editor of Travel Weekly.