Condé Nast CEO Chuck Townsend handed out awards at the company's annual publishers' meeting in Naples, Fla., tonight, and this year, the top Publisher of the Year prize went to Bon Appétit's Pamela Drucker Mann.
The vp and publisher was seen as a shoo-in for the award; a first-time publisher when she was given the Epicurean title in 2011, she finished 2013 with a 22.3 percent increase in ad pages, making Bon App the company's foremost brand in ad page, ad revenue, ad profit and ad profit margin growth. Last year, she and editor in chief Adam Rapoportshared the Collaborative Leadership award, a recently created honor to recognize the contribution of the editorial as well as the business side.
Four brands were recognized for "outstanding overall business performance." Vogue, which won Publisher of the Year in 2012, took the first-place platinum award, after a year in which it grew ad pages 3.5 percent. Bon App won gold, Details took silver and Vanity Fair, bronze.
This year's Collaborative Leadership award went to Allure's editor in chief Linda Wells and vp, publisher Agnes Chapski. The pair were recognized for growing audience and revenue (ad pages were up 4.8 percent in 2013) and programs that led to the beauty magazine's most profitable year since 2008.
Monica Ray, evp of the consumer marketing division, was named corporate executive of the year. The consumer marketer role typically is a behind-the-scenes one, but it's gained importance in recent years as traditional publishers have seized on the importance of getting more money out of consumers in a challenged ad market. Ray, who was hired away from Time Inc. three years ago, was recognized for improving profit by 10 percent, spearheading the company's first paywall, launching an All Access plan on Amazon and helping the company achieve print audience growth in 2013.
Townsend also created a new award, the 100/100 Club, acknowledging titles that turned in 100-plus ad page increases this year. Honored were Bon App, Details and Vogue.
He also gave a shout-out to the top editors and publishers behind six brands that reached record profitability in 2013, which he said helped the company reach its best year since 2007. They are The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Wired, Vogue, GQ and Allure.