NEW YORK -- Alan Fredericks, the editorial vice president of
Cahners Travel Group and former editor in chief of Travel Weekly,
won the 1999 American Business Press' Crain Award.
Named for G.D.
Crain Jr., the founder of Advertising Age magazine, the award is
given for outstanding contributions to the development of editorial
excellence in the business press. It was presented to Fredericks at
a ceremony in New York on March 4.
He was cited for his career record of editorial accomplishment,
including the formulation of editorial policies and the direction
of editorial activities for several business publications.
In May, Fredericks will mark 33 years as a travel industry
journalist, including 25 years as the editor in chief of Travel
Weekly.
He began his media career as a broadcaster in 1954 and spent 11
years as a radio announcer, newscaster and disc jockey for radio
stations in Pennsylvania, Michigan and New York.
In 1966, he made the transition to print by way of the
Associated Press, where he worked on the rewrite desk. Later that
year, he joined Travel Weekly, which had been founded in 1958 by
Irwin Robinson, a former editor at Advertising Age.
Fredericks, who directs the editorial group from its
headquarters in Secaucus, N.J., writes a popular Travel Weekly
column called "Traveling," which contains insights on the
industry's issues and on his travels.
In addition to Travel Weekly, Fredericks oversees the newsletter
Travel Management Daily, TravelAgeWest and Meetings &
Conventions magazine.
Most recently, he participated in the development of Travel
Weekly Crossroads, the Internet-based resource of news and
interactive features for the travel industry. The Web site was
launched in 1997.
In 1994, Fredericks was appointed a delegate to the White House
Conference on Travel and Tourism and served on a travel industry
committee that developed recommendations for a new U.S. tourist
office.
He became the first trade journalist to be honored with ASTA's
Melva Pederson Award, which he received in 1995 for contributions
to travel journalism.
Born and raised in New York, Fredericks received a bachelor of
arts degree from New York University and a masters degree from the
New School for Social Research.
He lives with his wife and daughter in Old Bridge, N.J., and has
two sons from a previous marriage.