In 1999, soap actress Susan Lucci (All My Children) finally won a Daytime Emmy Award — on her 19th try. Lucci received a four-minute standing ovation, the audience applauding her capacity to absorb defeat year after year as much as her acting talents.

As the editor of SCHOOL BUS FLEET, I’ve absorbed quite a few defeats at the Maggie Awards, a competition for trade and consumer magazines headquartered west of the Mississippi River. The Maggies attract more than 2,000 entries each year from about 400 magazines.

To me, the Maggies are the equivalent of the Daytime Emmys, so I know what it’s like to stand in Susan Lucci’s shoes. Not literally, of course, but I can feel the pain of her exasperating string of losses, each one more disappointing than the last. You begin to wonder whether the judges have a grudge against dark-haired vixens with a tendency to overact or, in our case, long yellow vehicles filled with other people’s children. Perhaps the judges rode a bus during their youth and had a scowling bus driver who scared them silly. Or maybe they yearned to ride the bus but lived inside the walking radius. Or maybe we just weren’t better than the competition.

12 years of frustration
I’ve lost track of how many times the magazine has been a finalist and failed to bring home the trophy. In my 12 years with SCHOOL BUS FLEET, I’ve probably attended 10 Maggie Award dinners. Sometimes we were finalists in more than one category. I’m guessing that we’ve had a dozen chances to win overall, and we were always greeted with disappointment.

Several years in a row we lost to a magazine called HomeCare. In fact, HomeCare captured the best non-paid trade magazine category 10 straight years, from 1993 to 2002. It created its own Maggie dynasty. Then, in 2003 the magazine moved its headquarters to Atlanta and was geographically eliminated from the competition.

The door was opened, just a crack. But we continued to lose. One year it was to a magazine that covered the processed water industry. Another year it was to a publication that covered automated equipment for traveling salespeople. When I say that we “lost,” I’m being cynical. We did make it to the finals, which is an accomplishment in itself. It’s just that we didn’t get to make the trip to the podium, lay our hands on the surprisingly heavy acrylic trophy and give the acceptance speech.

Until this year, that is.

Finally, the winner’s circle
This year we entered our 2005 Fact Book in the category of Best Directories, Buying Guides, Reference Guides & Catalogs. We were pitted against some tough competition, including one of our sister publications here at Bobit Business Media — NAILS, which covers the nail salon industry. We also faced off against the likes of Electronic Retailer, Beauty Store Business and Meetings Guide South.

But the stars were aligned that night at the Maggie Awards. Although we weren’t particularly optimistic about our chances, the judges flew in the face of everything that’s happened over the past 12 years and finally rewarded our patience. To that end, I’d like to thank Tom McMahon, managing editor, and Albert Neal, associate editor, for their efforts in putting together the 2005 Fact Book. I’d also like to thank Marge Young, our art director, who designed the issue. Finally, I’d like to dedicate the Maggie Award to Jody Bush, who passed away last December. As many of you will recall, Jody was the editor of SCHOOL BUS FLEET during the early and mid-1990s. She was a dedicated journalist and a true supporter of the school bus industry. And she would have been thrilled to learn that we finally won a Maggie.