Haymarket Media’s three McKnight’s brands collectively took home seven awards in the 2025 Awards for Publication Excellence competition, also known as the APEX Awards, including two Grand Awards, the highest honor in the competition.

Four of the seven awards recognized excellence in column-writing by editors, and other awards recognized a website, a print magazine and conference coverage.

Grand Awards:

• McKnight’s Long-Term Care News Senior Editor Kim Marselas earned a Grand Award in the Best Social Media/Content Creation category for three columns about the long-term care staffing crisis: “Where will patients go when nursing homes close? Consider this uncomfortable possibility,” “Nightmare agency data is a dream-like bounty for the plaintiff’s bar,” and “Immigration delays, staggered starts could lead to nursing home hiring debacle.”
• McKnight’s Home Care Editor Liza Berger received a Grand Award in a Best Writing category for her columns. Among the topics she tackled in the past year were the high costs of personal care, lessons about dying from former President Jimmy Carter and another disappointing home health proposed rule.

Awards of Excellence:

• McKnight’s Senior Living Editor Lois Bowers won an Award of Excellence in the Best Writing – Regular Departments & Columns category for her editor’s columns. One piece in the winning entry discussed how assisted living providers can accurately represent themselves to lawmakers and others. The other piece in the entry focused on the importance of lobbyists working on behalf of providers.
• McKnight’s Long-Term Care News Executive Editor Jim Berklan earned an Award of Excellence in the Best Single Blog Post category for a column titled “Life Care Centers case sensational for all the wrong reasons,” a piece in his coverage of the drama that surrounded the bid to oversee billionaire Forrest Preston’s vast financial empire.
• McKnight’s Senior Living’s editorial and art teams won an Award of Excellence in the Best Website category for mcknightsseniorliving.com. The honor recognizes the work of Bowers, McKnight’s Senior Living Content Editor Kim Bonvissuto, McKnight’s Editorial Director John O’Connor, McKnight’s Special Projects Coordinator Foster Stubbs, McKnight’s Senior Art Director Monica Pizzi, McKnight’s Graphic Designer Aminah Beg, and writer Kathleen Steele Gaivin.
• The McKnight’s Long-Term Care News editorial team, Berklan and Marselas, was recognized in the Best Magazines, Journals & Tabloids – Print category for its print magazine.
• McKnight’s Home Care Staff Writer Adam Healy and Beg earned an Award of Excellence in the category of Best Campaigns, Programs & Plans – Special Events & Meetings for their coverage of the 2024 National Association for Home Care & Hospice national conference. Healy wrote about a press conference with the new CEO of the National Alliance for Care at Home. He also covered news about home health conditions of participation and the new Hospice Outcomes and Patient Evaluation tool and talked to NAHC outgoing President William Dombi about his tenure at the organization.

The 37th annual APEX competition, sponsored by Communications Concepts, garnered more than 1,000 entries from around the world. The awards recognize “excellence in graphic design, editorial content, and the ability to achieve overall communications excellence.” Organizers said that this year’s competition was “exceptionally intense.” Work completed during 2024 was eligible for recognition in the 2025 competition.