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Circulation Federation Sales Executive of the Year Award


The Circulation Sales Executive of the Year award is given to an employee of an NAA member newspaper who works in a circulation or consumer-marketing department. Three awards are presented, one from each of two circulation groups: less than 75,000 and 75,000 and above. An overall winner is also selected from the winner of the three categories. Applicable job titles include, but are not limited to: circulation sales manager, single copy manager, retail sales manager, home delivery manager, district manager, circulation promotion director, circulation director, Newspaper In Education coordinator, and consumer marketing manager. The eligibility criteria are as follows:
  • Nominees must implement and manage all sales and marketing activities for which they are nominated.
  • Nominee has successfully created and implemented innovative programs and strategies to grow circulation and/or readership during the previous 2-5 years.
  • Nominee can demonstrate circulation improvement in quantifiable terms.
  • Nominee is always looking for new customer and/or readership growth strategies and ways to measurably increase penetration in markets.
  • Nominee possesses proven leadership skills.
  • Nominee would be identified by his/her peers as an outstanding circulation sales executive and someone they respect.

A brochure is sent to all Circulation Federation members, publishers and corporations recruiting nominees. They submit a nomination form listing the outstanding attributes of their candidate and the fiscal contributions that they have made to their paper. Submissions are separated into three circulation sizes and presented to the awards committee. The awards committee reviews each application and all accompanying material and selects the winning individual from each category.

Past winners:

  • 2007 Circulation Sales Executive of the Year winners
    Overall Best    : Keith Foutz, corporate circulation director, Western Communications Inc., Bend , Ore. 
    Circulation 75,000 and below: Denise Zernechel, director of circulation, The Free Press, CNHI Midwest Division, Mankato , Minn. 
    Circulation 75,000 and above: Gary DiSanto, vice president of circulation, Cincinnati Enquirer

  • 2006 Circulation Sales Executive of the Year winners
    Best Overall: Mike Memphis, circulation director, Carroll County Times, Westminster, Md.
    Circulation 150,000 and below: Jamie Sizemore, circulation manager, The News-Enterprise, Elizabethtown, Ky.
    Circulation above 150,000: Maria Ravera, home delivery manager, The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee

  • 2005 Circulation Sales Executive of the Year winners
    Circulation up to 75,000    : Keely Byars, circulation director, The Bismarck (N.D.) Tribune
    Circulation 75,000-150,000: Jon Wiley, circulation sales and marketing manager, Herald-Tribune, Sarasota, Fla.
    Circulation over 150,000: Helen Hoffman, circulation director/sales, The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.

  • 2004 Circulation Sales Executive of the Year winners
    Circulation under 75,000:     Lorenzo Vigliante, circulation director, The Eagle, Bryan, Texas
    Circulation 75,000-150,000: Mark A. Henschen, group director, North County Times, Escondido, Calif.
    Circulation over 150,000: Rick Bell, vice president/circulation, The Des Moines Register

  • 2003 Circulation Sales Executive of the Year winners
    Circulation over 150,000    : Mei-Mei Chan, vice president of circulation, The Seattle Times.
    Circulation of 75,000-150,000: Steve Ecken, circulation director, News-Press, Fort Myers, Fla.
    Circulation under 75,000: Jim Thompson, director of consumer sales and marketing, Quad-City Times, Davenport, Iowa.

  • The awards competition did not occur in 2002.

  • 2001 Circulation Sales Executive of the Year winners
    Circulation over 150,000    : Michael Huot, vice president of circulation, The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.
    Circulation 75,000-150,000: Curtis Allen Smith, circulation promotions manager, San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group, West Covina, Calif.
    Circulation under 75,000: Rhonda Zuraff, who won for her work as circulation director, Southern Illinoisan, Carbondale, Ill. Currently, she is circulation manager for the Missoulian in Missoula, Mont.

  • 2000 Circulation Sales Executive of the Year winners
    Circulation over 150,000    : Brad Kuhn, single-copy sales manager, Orlando Sentinel Communications Circulation 75,000-150,000: Michael Kane, circulation director, Greensburg (Pa.) Tribune-Review
    Circulation under 75,000: Rino Vitolo, circulation director, Essex County Newspapers, Beverly, Mass.