Bertelsmann Family Feud Ethics Game Receives Prestigious Award for “Best Employee Publication”

On Wednesday night, The Bertelsmann Family Feud Ethics Game won the prestigious public relations industry Bronze SABRE Award for “Best Employee Publication” and was a finalist for the Gold SABRE Award for “Best Employee Communications”. The SABRE Awards recognize the best internal and external communications programs created by companies and agencies in the preceding year. SABRE stands for “Superior Achievement in Branding and Reputation” and a Bronze SABRE is awarded for “excellence in technical aspects of communication”. The Bertelsmann Family Feud Ethics Game was launched in 2004, represents the collective teamwork of Bertelsmann’s North American companies and was originally created and spearheaded by Andrea Bonime-Blanc, Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer for Bertelsmann, Lou Festa, Chief Financial Officer of FremantleMedia North America, and Lisa Reilly, Human Resources Director at G+J USA Publishing. This Bronze SABRE Award for Best Employee Publication specifically recognizes one of the key elements of the overall Family Feud Ethics Game Program -- BEN (Bertelsmann Ethics Network) Magazine -- as the outstanding employee publication of the year. BEN Magazine is a collection of articles on ethics and compliance (organized around the five themes of Bertelsmann’s Code of Business Conduct) culled from G+J USA’s Inc. and Fast Company business magazines, the BeNet Business Ethics page and the Bertelsmann 2003 Corporate Responsibility Report. BEN Magazine is distributed to all North American employees at orientation and periodic ethics training sessions and was a joint product of the teamwork of G+J USA (Art Direction and Associate Editor), Brown Printing (Printing and Associate Editor) and BMG Direct (Graphics Design). Bonime-Blanc served as editor-in-chief. Festa and Bonime-Blanc attended the SABRE Award Ceremony at the New York City Sheraton Hotel and received the award on behalf of the Bertelsmann companies. The audience was made up of close to 1000 communications, public relations and other professionals. The finalists competing with Bertelsmann for “Best Employee Publication” were Novartis, Honeywell, Providian and Marsh & McClellan. In addition to Bertelsmann, the finalists for the Gold SABRE for “Best Employee Communications” were Wyeth (the winner), Enterprise-Rent-A-Car, Cingular Wireless and SBC Communications. The SABRE Award winners are selected by a panel comprised of approximately 20 of the most senior public relations professionals in the industry and chaired by Paul Holmes, CEO and Editor of The Holmes Report. This year over 1,600 entries were submitted for approximately 90 award categories. A copy of BEN Magazine can be downloaded from the Ethics & Compliance Website (ethics.bertelsmann.com ) under the “Training Learning & Communications” page.