Penton's WardsAuto.com Named a Winner in "Best of the Web" Competition

NEW YORK--Penton Media Inc. today announced that its Broadcast Engineering^® family of e-newsletters and Web site, and its WardsAuto.com site have been selected as winners in the 2007 “Best of the Web” awards competition, conducted by min and min’s b2b. WardsAuto.com was named as the winner of the “Premium Site” category for the second time, while Broadcast Engineering’s multiple offerings won the e-mail newsletter division for the third consecutive year. Broadcastengineering.com was selected by the judges as the best Web redesign/relaunch of the year. WardsAuto.com was also selected as a finalist in the “Special Online Coverage” category.

The awards program recognizes the best Web sites and Web programs of consumer and business-to-business magazine publishers. Judges for the Best of the Web awards included consumer and b2b magazines executives, digital media consultants, and members of the min editorial team.

The judging panel selected Broadcast Engineering’s growing array of e-newsletters, each of which features all-original content, as winners again in this year’s competition. The judges noted “by channeling its main audience into 15 highly targeted interest groups, broadcastengineering.com serves both audience and ad clients well. The frequent publishing schedule keeps the brand top of mind. Advertisers and readers alike are lined up to get into this content.” Collectively, the 15 e-newsletters generate almost 13 million annual reader impressions and reach a global audience of more than 95,000 industry professionals.

Broadcast Engineering was also recognized as a winner in the “Relaunch/Redesign” category for its work on broadcastengineering.com. The judges said, “Penton’s masterful relaunch has made a vast, diverse industry manageable and fully accessible. Broadcast Engineering created 12 front doors to its huge house of information. Every vertical seems to have its own home page of targeted news, relevant ads and sponsorships, and a consistent set of tools brings the most important resources to the surface. This cleaner, more targeted approach to business publishing has also clearly registered with advertisers seeking a highly qualified audience.” The new site went live in October 2006.

WardsAuto.com was recognized for the third consecutive year as one of the deepest resources in the industry, providing timely news and information and automotive-focused search capabilities. The judges said “Ward’sAuto subscribers know they can get the information first on this all-encompassing Web product. Ward’s auto.com turns the familiar publishing model on its head by repurposing Web content to the print side. The ‘online-first’ strategy helps Ward‘s maintain top-notch service for an increasingly international auto industry. Site licenses to Ward’s are essential at every major vehicle manufacturer and most the supply chain, putting the brand on more than 200,000 desktops.”

The Broadcast Engineering brand family serves corporate management, engineers/technicians and other management personnel at commercial and public TV stations, post-production and recording studios, broadcast networks, cable, telephone and satellite production centers and networks.

WardsAuto.com provides professionals in the automotive industry with news, data and analysis on topics vital to their companies and to them individually. As a leading publisher of auto industry information since 1924, Ward’s created WardsAuto.com as its online portal for trusted reporting and analysis that its readership expects.

Penton Media, Inc. is the largest independent business-to-business media company in the U.S., serving more than six million business professionals every month. The company's market-leading brands are focused on 30 industries and include 113 trade magazines, 145 Web sites, 150 industry trade shows and conferences, and more than 500 information data products. Headquartered in New York City, the privately held company is owned by MidOcean Partners and U.S. Equity Partners II, an investment fund sponsored by Wasserstein & Co., LP, and its co-investors. For additional information on the company and its businesses, visit www.penton.com.