An honor for AMNews

We generally reserve the pages of American Medical News for coverage concerning physicians and not news about ourselves. This is an exception, and happily so. AMNews has been named "Media Brand of the Year" by Medical Marketing & Media magazine, an influential trade publication that covers the publishing and marketing side of health care.

We've had our share of traditional journalism awards for quality in reporting and illustration, but Media Brand of the Year is a breed apart and it is especially satisfying. It is hard-nosed recognition from a publication that informs industry leaders who want to make business decisions about where to place their marketing dollars. This recognition is in perfect sync with the core of what we offer every week: Useful news and information for physician readers.

It's an approach that clearly resonates with physicians who must keep up with what is happening in government, practice management, patient care and the profession. One key factor in MM&M's decision was our rise to the top tier of medical publications in terms of readership. This is in a market that offers physicians plenty of choices, including some of the most prestigious journals in medicine.

We're in good company, but then the very notion of a brand is tied to expectations about quality, performance and trust. Those values represent what we always strive to be in the eyes of our readers, and this recent honor is a validation of that. But at this moment our thoughts turn less to what we are as a product than to the two groups of people essential to our success.

The first group is the amednews staff. MM&M's recognition is proof of the quality and determination of everyone who works here, on the editorial and publishing sides, to put the best possible issue of AMNews in your hands or on your computer screen each week.

The second, much larger group, is the more than 250,000 physicians who receive American Medical News. Many are AMA members and, as such, are the lifeblood of our publisher, the AMA. It is a privilege -- and an exciting, challenging assignment -- to serve a physician audience.

Our thanks to MM&M for this honor. And special thanks to our readers for making it, and what we do here, possible.

Robert Musacchio, publisherBenjamin Mindell, editor

See our awards page (link).