LOS ANGELES (March 2007)? – Parenting Publications of America (PPA) gave out over 370 Editorial and Design Competition awards to 80 parenting newspapers and magazines at a banquet on March 3, 2007, the climax of the three-day PPA Annual Convention in Nashville, TN.

Charlottesville?s own local parenting publication, AlbemarleFamily, was in attendance at the convention and honored with three awards for excellence: A Silver for the December 2006 cover design “Girl with hand knitted hat” by Robin Bethke, Creative Director. An editorial bronze was awarded for the health News Feature “Sleeping Safely,” written by Abena Foreman-Trice of UVa, a regular columnist for AlbemarleFamily Living. Silver for the original photography in “Austrian Easter Eggs” by Robin Bethke and Jennifer Bryerton. Judges commented, “The happy youngster with the Easter basket certainly gets readers into the story, but it is the artful composition of the accompanying detail shots that make this package distinctive.”

“Our goal is to provide local parents with a high quality magazine that is both fun to read and useful,” explained Jennifer Bryerton, Co-Publisher of AlbemarleFamily. “We’re very excited to have our work honored by professionals in the field.” In business for 9 years, 2007 marks an incredible expansion for AlbemarleFamily as their popular magazine has added staff to keep up with their greater than 30% annual growth. AlbemarleFamily will also debut their new daytrip book this year.

PPA’s Editorial and Design Awards Competition recognizes excellence in journalism, photography and design achieved by publishers, editors, writers and designers at member publications. Prof. Daryl Moen of the University of Missouri School of Journalism coordinated the annual contest. A panel of 25 judges poured over 800 entries to choose the winners in each category. All judges have had significant professional experience. Open to all member publications, the competition was broken into circulation divisions: 30,000 or fewer, 30,001 to 54,999, and 55,000 and above.

Established in March 1988, PPA is a national trade association of regional parenting publications that reaches from Seattle to Boston and from Canada to Miami. Some of the publications are tabloid newspapers; others are magazines, with 4-color, glossy covers. For more information about PPA, visit www.parentingpublications.org.

Started in 1998, AlbemarleFamily is dedicated to being “The Ultimate Resource Making Parenting Easier & Growing Up Fun”. Their popular weekly web site receives over a million hits and provides over 50,000 visitors each month with extensive community resources. In addition to the web site, AlbemarleFamily also publishes a weekly e-Newsletter, monthly print Magazine, and two Directories. AlbemarleFamily also has a “live” presence in the community that you discover when you look through their publications and see stories about local school children, families participating at the AlbemarleFamily events, and more.