Editorial · April 11, 2022
Why the Awards publish editorial notes, not trophies
Award programs seldom explain their quirks, so readers fill in the blanks, and they usually guess wrong. Here is one of ours, in plain terms.
The USA National Business Awards has no quota. A quota would mean publishing the top three no matter how good they are. Our editors list only the businesses they pick from public information. If they pick none in a category, it stays empty. The pages can look odd as a result, and they are more honest for it.
So some categories show just one name, and some have sat empty in past cycles. A category may have no honorees. No winner pays a fee for inclusion.
The editorial note does the rest of the work. The editors write a qualitative note for every honoree, so you can see why it was listed.
If you cite our results, cite the category page and the cycle year, and not just our name. Things change, and no 2026 result counts as a permanent endorsement.
Our methodology page lays out what the editors look at and how they choose.