Family-Life Wins National Awards

Best Website, Plus Magazine Design & Editorial

Family-Life Magazine's website was awarded the best website for families by Parenting Publications of America, an international association for regional parenting and family magazines. In total, the magazine received 6 web, design and editorial awards in the international competition, adding to the two awards received in 2007.

Hundreds of magazines from across the United States, Australia and Canada meet the highest caliber of journalism as a condition of membership in Parenting Publications of America. These publications choose their very best work throughout the year to enter in the competition.

"This competition is truly the best of the best," says founder Sharon Gowan. "Our local staff delivers truly top notch magazines and websites to local parents, families, and professionals. Our new website was just launched in January. To win the coveted Gold General Excellence Award for Websites in our first entry to the website competition was extraordinary! We came away with a total of three Web Site Awards."

"Our web awards help us to know we're serving our readers' needs online,” says Gowan. "Now we're looking forward to introducing even more features to help our families connect to their community and each other."

Building on the success of last year's awards, Family-Life Magazines also received three new Editorial and Design Awards, for the magazine, including a second award for Front Cover - Glossy, for the second year in a row.

"We're thrilled!" says Gowan. " Since we compete against publications that are part of national conglomerates—the competition was tough! It's great that our wonderful local staff has been recognized nationally for their awesome work."

Family-Life Magazine is a purely local success story, now celebrating 16 years of providing 'All the best for families,' including important local news stories, community resource guides, and annual events such as the Family-Life Expo & Home Show, the Summer Camp Adventure Fair, and the Baby & Child Fair. In addition to publishing Sonoma Family Life Magazine and Mendo Lake Family Life Magazine, and the website (www.sonomafamilylife.com or www.mendolakefamilylife.com), Family Life also provides custom publishing services.

"The biggest honor for all of us here at Family-Life is that local families welcome us into their homes, their in-boxes, and visit our website. In addition, we came away from the conference with some wonderful ideas that we think our readers are going to love!"