Russell Shor Wins AGS Trade Journalism Award

Jennifer Heebner and Carrie Soucy won the 2008 Richard T. Liddicoat Journalism Awards in the Industry/Trade Reporting category for “Seal of Disapproval,” in JCK Luxury Magazine. Russell Shor will receive the award in the Trade Journal category, for the Gems & Gemology feature “From Single Source to Global Free Market: the Transformation of the Cultured Pearl Industry.”

The honorees will receive their awards at the American Gem Society (AGS) Ninth Annual Circle of Distinction dinner July 29 in New York City. The awards, notes AGS, are given to journalists who make an exceptional contribution to the understanding of gemology and the jewelry industry, and who uphold the Society’s ideals of ethics, education, and consumer protection.

Each article is acknowledged with a $1,500 cash prize and an etched crystal award inscribed with the author’s name. AGS also makes a $1,000 contribution to the Richard T. Liddicoat Scholarship Fund at GIA in the name of each winning article.

Heebner and Soucy’s piece, AGS said in a release, investigates heightened consumer interest in product origins due to recent issues on imports – like high lead counts in jewelry – and a federal law mandating disclosure of origins. The article claims the industry has largely ignored the law, making it vulnerable to legal and retail woes and consumer distrust.

Shor’s article documents the cultured pearl industry’s transformation in the past 15 years from Japan being the lone producer – offering only white and round cultured pearls – to an international business creating an ever-growing variety of products. Shor is a two-time Liddicoat Award winner.

The Richard T. Liddicoat Journalism Awards were founded in 2003 in memory of “The Father of Modern Gemology.” Liddicoat was the longtime president of the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) and editor-in-chief of Gems & Gemology, first published by GIA under his leadership. He was a prolific author, and his Handbook of Gem Identification is a standard for gemological research.