About Readers’ Choice
For years, folks in the Fort Wayne area have looked forward to voting in the Readers’ Choice contest to support their favorite local businesses, organizations, people and attractions. We’re proud to host it as a way to recognize the places and people that make this region special.
The contest proceeds in three phases – a nomination phase, two voting rounds and the winners and finalists announcement.
Nominations and Voting
- Nomination period: The contest starts with a nomination round, where readers can propose businesses, organizations and names for all of the categories. This keeps the contest fresh, as new businesses and organizations come to the area and existing ones change and grow.
- First voting round: In the first voting round, readers vote once per day per category to winnow the big list of nominated businesses, organizations and attractions down to just the Top Five in each category.
- Final voting round: The excitement builds with voting on the Top Five businesses, organizations and attractions in each category! This is the final voting round, and from this will be crowned the winner and two finalists.
Nomination Guidelines
Anyone may nominate, and businesses may nominate themselves. It only takes one eligible nomination in a category to make it to the first voting round.
Our Readers’ Choice team does its best to vet all nominees. Here are the guidelines we use, with exceptions as noted below:
- Nominated businesses must be located in Allen County or within a 60-mile radius of Fort Wayne, IN.
- We reserve the right to disqualify a business or organization from a category that does not represent a significant focus of its activities.
- Nominations for categories that call for people to be nominated, like Best High School Teacher, must include the nominee’s full name and place of business, and may be rejected if that information is not provided.
- Individuals are not eligible to be nominated in categories that do not ask for a first and last name.
Application of our criteria is not an exact science. Our team uses its best judgment; if you think we’ve made an error, please email readerschoice@fortwayne.com.
Category Exceptions and Special Notes
Health: In categories where we asked for practices, we try to exclude individual practitioners, unless they operate solo practices named after themselves.
Professional Services: the Insurance Agency category is open to locally based offices or teams of agents or brokers selling insurance directly to buyers. The category is not intended for individual agents, unless they are sole proprietors of an agency or brokerage, in which case that agency or brokerage may be nominated under their name.
The Photographer category is intended for professionals only.
The Real Estate Agency category is not intended for individual agents unless they are sole proprietors of an agency or brokerage, in which case that agency or brokerage may be nominated under their name. Individual agents should be nominated in the Real Estate Agent category.
We reserve the right to change these guidelines. Check back on this page for current guidelines.
Fair Voting
Nominees/entrants are prohibited from soliciting votes by offering payments or exchange of value of any kind.
Voting is limited to one vote in each category per person per day.
Even though we require sign-ups, we recognize that some people, in their enthusiasm, may be tempted to vote several times using different email accounts. Please note that voting under multiple email accounts violates the rules.
We do have systems in place to detect fraudulent voting. When we see evidence of fraudulent voting, we may eliminate all suspect votes at our discretion. In extreme cases, we will remove entrants, as well.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What are the key dates for 2026?
- Nomination Period: April 1-19
- First Round of Voting: June 6-14
- Second Round of Voting: August 1-9
- Winners announced: September 26
Q: I nominated my business, but I don’t see it showing up on the website in the list of nominees. Why is that?
If you’re looking at the site during the nomination period and don’t see a business you nominated, fear not! All valid entries are considered and reviewed. But in order for a nomination to show up on the site, we have to approve it manually. Because we receive thousands of nominations, we can get backlogged.
The good news is your business only has to be nominated once to make it to the voting round, assuming it met the guidelines. And if it did meet the guidelines, it does not matter if it showed up on the site during the nomination period.
Q: My business was nominated, and I saw it on the website during the nomination period, but it is not showing up in the first voting round. Why?
See the guidelines above. After nominations close and before voting opens, our team does its best to vet all nominees. While your business may have appeared during the nomination period, our team may have determined it was ineligible for the first voting round.
Q: I missed the nomination period. Can I/my business still be entered in the contest?
Late nominations may be accepted if received promptly after the nomination phase closes. They will be reviewed as soon as is practical, and if they meet the criteria for their proposed category, they will be included in the first voting round.
Q: My business was nominated, but did not make it to the first voting round. How do I register a complaint?
Email us at readerschoice@fortwayne.com within 24 hours after the first voting round opens. You must identify the group and category and tell us why you think your business should have been included.
Like most humans, we sometimes make mistakes, and if we have, we’ll add your business within moments of our decision.
Q: What guidelines are used to determine whether a nominated business qualifies for the voting round?
Please see the sections above on “Nomination Guidelines” and “Category Exceptions and Special Notes.”
Q: How are the winners selected?
Winners are those that received the most votes in their category. Finalists are those that received the second- and third-most votes in their category.
If there is a tie, we will announce both.
Q: Why does this contest allow people to vote every day?
Fort Wayne Newspapers’ Readers’ Choice allows daily voting—once per person per day per category—because daily voting rewards entrants with passionate supporters. With a single vote per person, entrants with the best name recognition have a distinct advantage, as many voters skim over categories and cast their votes casually. Name recognition is an important part of finding the best of our area, but we also want to reward the passionate loyalty some people have for their local favorites, which can be captured in daily voting.
Also: This contest is fundamentally about celebrating and supporting great institutions by raising their profile and helping them gain new fans. With daily voting, the contest raises the visibility of those businesses and organizations that use it to reach out to new and existing customers to ask for their support, through advertising and through their own channels.