Celebrating Excellence: Reliable Plant’s First‑Year Awards and Milestones

When my colleagues at Noria Corporation and I began shaping the editorial framework for Reliable Plant magazine, we sensed we were building something exceptional—though its full impact was yet unseen.

Reliable Plant launched in July 2005 and has quickly captured industry attention. Today, the print edition reaches over 52,000 readers.

These figures demonstrate our resonance within the manufacturing sector—and, in fact, our growing footprint in the broader business press landscape.

I am proud to announce that Reliable Plant earned three editorial excellence awards at the 28th annual American Society for Business Publication Editors (ASBPE) competition.

The ASBPE awards represent the largest recognition event in U.S. business publishing, receiving twice as many entries as any other national competition each year.

We entered the ASBPE West Region, which spans 19 states—from Alaska to Wyoming—and features respected trade journals such as PC World, Macworld, Network, Oracle Magazine, Workforce Management, and Silicon Valley Business Journal. Reliable Plant competed against titles with circulations under 80,000.

This year’s competition evaluated over 2,600 entries from 2005 issues. Roughly 250 were honored with editorial awards nationwide. Judges comprised seasoned business‑press executives, editors, consultants, and academics.

All three ASBPE accolades were awarded for content published in Reliable Plant’s inaugural three issues, produced by Tulsa‑based Noria Corporation.

My cover story on planning and scheduling excellence at Coors Brewing Company (Nov/Dec 2005) earned the case study award. Over the past four years, ASBPE has honored me with a case history award each year, totaling 12 awards in seven years.

Senior Vice President Drew Troyer, Reliable Plant’s technical editor, received the regular column, staff‑written award for his series ‘The Exponent’ (July/August and Nov/Dec 2005). This marks Troyer’s second ASBPE honor, following a 2003 columnist award. President Jim Fitch earned the regular department award for his ‘Lubrication Lessons’ pieces (July/August, Sep/Oct, Nov/Dec 2005), his first ASBPE recognition.

While peer awards are highly valued and signal that our work stands with industry leaders, they acknowledge past achievements rather than guarantee future success.

At Reliable Plant and Noria Corporation, we pledge to:

• excel in everything we do
• provide timely, relevant information that helps you increase your plant’s reliability, productivity, performance, and profitability
• continuously improve our full array of publishing, education, and service offerings

Reliable Plant has already achieved remarkable milestones in its first year, yet this is merely the beginning. — Paul V. Arnold, Editor