USA TODAY Presents First USA TODAY Road Warrior of the Year Award

Award presented to frequent business traveler Joyce Gioia at this year's annual Freddie awards

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Apr 29, 2013, 12:01 ET

MCLEAN, Va., April 29, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- USA TODAY presented the first USA TODAY Road Warrior of the Year award to frequent business traveler Joyce Gioia at this year's annual Freddie Awards, which honor the world's leading travel loyalty programs. The award was presented by John Peters, president of the USA TODAY Travel Media Group, during the awards ceremony held at USA TODAY headquarters.

The inaugural USA TODAY Road Warrior of the Year award was chosen by the editorial staff as the most valuable member of the Road Warrior panel and recognizes responsiveness and participation. The 2013 winner, Joyce Gioia, has regularly answered USA TODAY's editorial surveys in great detail, shared useful insights and suggested interesting story ideas to reporters.

Gioia is a strategic business futurist and president of The Herman Group, a firm serving a wide range of corporate, trade association and governmental clients. Gioia serves customers on six continents and in 46 states. She has been a member of USA TODAY's Road Warrior panel since 2006.

"The Road Warrior panel is an important part of our travel coverage and allows us to interact with the most frequent business travelers in the country. Joyce logs nearly 125 nights on the road each year and has been a valuable resource to our travel team providing insights that only the most frequent travelers can offer," said Peters.

USA TODAY's Road Warrior Panel comprises more than 2,000 frequent business travelers who have flown a minimum of 100,000 miles or spent 100 nights at hotels a year. They serve as a valuable editorial resource for USA TODAY and share their thoughts and experiences about travel issues, trends and other topics related to frequent travelers. They are often interviewed and quoted in USA TODAY. The panel was created in 1990. For more information or to apply to be a Road Warrior, please log on to https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/USATodayFrequentTravelerPanel.

USA TODAY is a multi-platform news and information media company. Founded in 1982, USA TODAY's mission is to serve as a forum for better understanding and unity to help make the USA truly one nation. Through its unique visual storytelling, USA TODAY delivers high-quality and engaging content across print, digital, social and video platforms. An innovator of news and information, USA TODAY reflects the pulse of the nation and serves as the host of the American conversation – today, tomorrow and for decades to follow. USA TODAY, the nation's number one newspaper in print circulation with an average of more than 1.7 million daily, and USATODAY.com, an award-winning news website launched in 1995, reach a combined six million readers daily. USA TODAY is a leader in mobile applications with more than 17 million downloads on mobile devices. USA TODAY is owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI).

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