TulsaKids Honored with Best Magazine and 15 Editorial & Design Awards

Every year (except last year because of the pandemic), the Parenting Media Association (PMA) holds a convention. PMA is a trade association of regional parenting media companies. Over the years, PMA has become much more than a professional association, it has become a group of supportive, professional friends, and a true lifeline during the pandemic.

Parenting publications across the country may be independently owned (like TulsaKids) or part of larger publishing groups, or they may be owned by the local daily. Most are like TulsaKids, small businesses that may have started out at a mom’s kitchen table. A majority of the publications are owned by women.

Left to Right: Tara Rittler, Debbie Talley, Lindsey Copes, Brandi Moore, Betty Casey, Annie Tyndall

Over the years, I have been amazed at the resiliency, intelligence and creative flexibility of my colleagues in the parenting publications industry. As I looked around the room at our most recent PMA convention last month in Florida, I saw people that I have known for more than 20 years who have faced the tidal wave of technology and conquered it. They have adapted to parents’ changing challenges and worked to provide the new information that they need. Despite tiny or non-existent staffs, not one of them sat down and said, “I can’t do this.” They were resilient. They adapted.

And then the pandemic hit. It changed all of us in unimaginable ways. Restaurants, schools and businesses closed, which shut down our primary method of distribution. Our industry turned more to technology. Not only did TulsaKids continue to send out a digital edition, we upped the count so that our distribution now reaches over 114,000 more households than before. Today, with print plus digital distribution, we’re available to more than 150,000 families.

Over the past couple of years, PMA publishers have “met” through weekly and monthly calls to share concerns, ideas and successes about everything from distribution to how to deal with paper shortages and spiraling printing costs to how to best serve our communities with information that seemed to be changing hourly. Those calls – the support, the camaraderie, the willingness to share – truly kept most of us going. It didn’t matter whether it was LA Parent, Dallas Child, Colorado Parent, Nashville Parent, Seattle, Monterey Bay or San Francisco, we were all in the same pandemic boat trying to navigate something we had never faced before.

Betty Casey and Chuck Foshee at the 2021 PMA Awards Ceremony

TulsaKids is a very small business with a very small staff, yet we were honored with some big awards at this year’s PMA awards dinner at the close of the convention. I have listed the awards and the writers below. You can find the list with judges’ comments here.

Tara Rittler, our web and social media editor, does an amazing job of juggling an e-newsletter, Facebook, Instagram, the calendar and much more, while keeping her eye on the goings-on around Tulsa. She wants to be the first to know – and she’ll probably be the first to experience it. You can see that her hard work paid off because she was honored with several awards.

I have the privilege to work with talented, local free-lance writers. I could not do my job without their creativity, ideas and excellent writing. It isn’t easy to churn out a monthly column, or to interview several people and do the research necessary for a long feature article. I know how much work is involved, and I am so honored and humbled to work with writers who can deliver excellent work to me every month.

You all are the reason that TulsaKids earned the General Excellence Award. Thank you all for everything you do to make TulsaKids the best!

Here is the information about the 2021 PMA award winners:

TulsaKids Magazine received 15 editorial and design awards, in addition to the top honor of General Excellence, at the 2021 Parenting Media Association conference in St. Petersburg, Florida. Independent judges were from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. The judges look for the best in local and regional parenting publications, special issues, websites and social media. The competition recognizes and rewards editorial, design and general excellence in local and regional parenting publications. TulsaKids staff includes Chuck Foshee, publisher; Betty Casey, editor; Tara Rittler, web and social media editor; Annie Tyndall, graphic designer; Brandi Moore and Lindsey Copes, account executives; Debbie Talley, comptroller.

TulsaKids competes in the small distribution category. Congratulations to the following winners, listed with other winners in each category:

General Excellence:

Gold, TulsaKids staff and freelance writers

• Silver: Nashville Parent
• Bronze: Augusta Family Magazine

Website General Excellence:

Silver, TulsaKids, Tara Rittler

• Gold: Cincinnati Family Magazine
• Bronze: Kansas City Parent

Calendar of Events:

Bronze, TulsaKids, Tara Rittler

• Silver: Cincinnati Family Magazine
• Gold: Kansas City Parent

Best Use of Social Media:

Gold, TulsaKids, Tara Rittler

• Silver: Monterey Bay Parent

Best E-newsletter:

Silver, TulsaKids, Tara Rittler

• Gold: Kansas City Parent

Best Blog:

Gold, TulsaKids, “Coffee Nebula” by Kristi Roe Owen

• Silver: Fredericksburg Parent & Family

Best Blog:

Bronze TulsaKids, “Grand Life” by Diane Morrow Kondos

Special Section:

Silver, TulsaKids, Baby Guide

• Gold: Baton Rouge Parents Magazine

Special Series:

Gold, TulsaKids, “DHS Waiting List for Vulnerable Families,” 2-part series by Natalie Mikles

• Silver: Growing Up in Santa Cruz
• Bronze: Neapolitan Family

News Feature:

Gold, TulsaKids, “The Unspoken Truth Behind Thanksgiving” by Brandon Schmitz

News Feature:

Silver, TulsaKids, “Re-imagining Schools in the Age of Covid-19 and Black Lives Matter” by Betty Casey

• Bronze: Monterey Bay Parent; “California Dreaming: The Fight for DACA”

Profile:

Silver, TulsaKids, “Every Person is Worthy of Dignity & Respect” by Keshia Pavey

Profile:

Bronze, TulsaKids, “You Have a Story to Tell” by Tara Rittler

• Gold: Frederick’s Child; “A Legacy for Frederick County Parents”

Family Fun:

Gold, TulsaKids, “Get Cooking” column by Natalie Mikles

• Silver: Kern County Family; “Family Harmony” and “Adults Who Care”

Child Development & Parenting Issues column:

Gold, TulsaKids, “Babies & Toddlers” by Kiley Roberson

• Silver: Kansas City Parent; “Meet the Experts”

Family Matters column:

Gold, TulsaKids, “School Age” by Mary Beth Ritchie

• Silver: Monterey Bay Parent; “Adulting 101”