Tag Archives: Awards
Bloomberg News team wins prize for Asia coverage
by Chris Roush
The Asia Society announced Tuesday that a team from Bloomberg News has won the 2013 Osborn Elliott Prize for Excellence in Journalism on Asia.
The $10,000 cash award, known as the Oz prize, will be presented at a public program and discussion on May 23, at 6 p.m., at Asia Society in New York.
The winning entry, a series of investigative stories titled “Revolution to Riches,” exposed the vast wealth accumulated by the families of some of China’s leaders, and documented the interlocking business interests of the country’s elite or “princeling” class.
The independent jury that oversees the prize selection called the Bloomberg News reporting “historic, exceptional, and insightful.” They noted that Bloomberg “beat the pack and led the story” which they called “gripping” and “fascinating.”
“Congratulations to Bloomberg News for winning in a very competitive field,” said Asia Society Executive Vice President Tom Nagorski in a statement. “This year marks the tenth year since the inception of the Oz prize. Since that time, the news industry has undergone unimaginable changes. This year’s honorees demonstrate that outstanding reporting on Asia continues to thrive.”
Read more here.
NYSSCPA names financial journalism award winners
by Chris Roush
The New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants announced Monday the winners of its 2013 Excellence in Financial Journalism Awards.
The award recognizes reporters from the national and local press whose work was published or broadcast in 2012 and contributed to a better and balanced understanding of business or financial topics. Winners were selected by judges from the NYSSCPA and the New York Financial Writers Association who ranked submissions on accuracy, quality and thoroughness of research.
This year’s winners will be honored during a luncheon ceremony April 30 in New York City.
Book
Book – Business/Financial: Kirsten Grind, for “The Lost Bank: The Story of Washington Mutual – The Biggest Bank Failure in American History” (Simon & Schuster), an intimate account of not only how one bank lost itself to greed and mismanagement, but how the entire financial industry and even the entire country lost its way as well.
Print & Online:
Trade Press Category – News/Investigative: David Kaplan, Fortune, for “Hostess Is Bankrupt…Again,” an investigative and analytical tour de force explaining the death of an American consumer icon.
Trade Press Category – Features: Roger Parloff, Fortune, for “The All-American Con Man”; the thoroughly, untangled story of Barry Minkow, a colorful insider trader and swindler who has spent a lifetime deceiving everyone.
Trade Press Category – Opinion: Rob Cox and Robert Cyran, Reuters Breakingviews, for “HP breakup is on tech world’s 2013 agenda,” these journalists succinctly argue how turning around the troubled technology company will take too long; and how breaking up HP would be quicker and double its value.
Consumer Press Category – News/Investigative: David Evans, Bloomberg News, for Duping the Donors; an in-depth series investigating how major charities instruct telemarketers to lie about how donations are used; and how other non-profits that are not charities make hundreds of millions of dollars tax free.
Consumer Press Category – Features: David Voreacos, Bloomberg News, for Inside Insider Trading; after studying every U.S. insider trader case over the past five years, Voreacos takes readers on an unprecedented two-story tour into the world of insider traders.
Consumer Press Category – Opinion: Susan Antilla, Bloomberg View, Wall Street wins, the public loses, was the compilation of three monthly-opinion columns that exposed readers to fraud, illegal arbitration and malicious practices by some in the finance industry; disclosures many investors may have otherwise been unaware of.
Television:
Category – Segment Running 10 Minutes or Less: None
Category – Segment Running More than 10 Minutes: Brian Ross, Rhonda Schwartz, Matthew Mosk and Megan Chuchmach, ABC News, The Money Trail 2012; the network’s investigative news team focused on the influence of big money in American politics and exposed the details of the hidden wealth of donors and candidates.
Radio:
Category – Segment Running 10 Minutes or Less: Carol Zimmer, Mark Mills, and Al Mayers, Bloomberg Radio, “Space Exploration Goes Private,” the report highlights the changing landscape for NASA and space travel in the 21st Century.
Category – Segment Running More than Ten Minutes: Carol Zimmer, Mark Mills, and Al Mayers, Bloomberg Radio, “Postponement Generation Grows Up,” a two-part series on how the economic recession has affected recent college graduates.
Columbia to honor former WSJ ME Steiger
by Chris Roush
Columbia University announced Monday that it will bestow an honorary doctorate on former Wall Street Journal managing editor Paul Steiger.
In its release, Columbia stated:
After 46 years as a newspaper reporter and editor, Steiger became, in 2008, the founder, editor-in-chief, and president of ProPublica, an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces journalism in the public interest. During his 16 years as managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, members of its newsroom staff won 16 Pulitzer Prizes. During a period of marked decline in reporting resources in much of the American news media, ProPublica focuses on important stories of accountability journalism. Its reporters won the first Pulitzer Prize for a Web-based news organization in 2010, and the first for work published only online in 2011.
Here is a Q&A that we did with Steiger back in 2009 about his career in business journalism.
Three biz journalists to be honored at SABEW’s 50th anniversary
by Chris Roush
Three business journalists, including a founding member, will be honored with SABEW President’s Awards at the 50th annual spring conference of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers in Washington, D.C., April 4-6.
Founding member Gene Miller, of Boca Raton, Fla., will be joined by Myron Kandel and Martha Steffens. Kandel, of New York City, is SABEW’s only two-time president. He initiated business coverage at CNN. Steffens has held the SABEW chair position at the University of Missouri for the last 11 years.
“These are three giant figures in business journalism,” said Warren Watson, executive director of SABEW. “The three have served the business journalism community for more than 160 years.”
The awards will be presented at a special gala on Saturday night at the Mayflower Renaissance Hotel, capping a three-day conference featuring business and government keynoters and dozens of other workshops and sessions. George Washington University’s Marvin Center will be the headquarters for the conference. Speakers over three days include Mad Money’s Jim Cramer, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, the Fed’s Janet Yellen and economist David Stockman.
Miller helped to organize SABEW’s first conference in New York City 50 years ago, initiating SABEW’s signature education event, a tradition that continues every spring. He enjoyed a long career in journalism and other fields, and today still teaches as an adjunct at Florida Atlantic University in Miami.
Miller served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and was a speechwriter for President Eisenhower, who was running for re-election in 1956. He has been director of 12 companies and been in leadership positions at McGraw Hill, Inc., the New York Stock Exchange, CNA Financial Corporation and the USG Corporation.
Miller’s journalism career began as a reporter, and later editor, of the Greensboro Daily News (N.C.). He also worked for Business Week magazine and Newsday in New York. He has written and edited many books, including the Barron’s Guide to Graduate Business Schools. He was business editor of NBC’s Today Show during Dave Garroway’s tenure as host.
Kandel was once named one of the 10 most influential financial journalists of the 20th century, a fitting accolade for the television-news pioneer and CNN’s founding business and financial editor.
Before his decades-long tenure at CNN, Kandel served as the financial editor of three newspapers – the Washington Star, the New York Herald Tribune and the New York Post – and a reporter for the New York Times, foreign correspondent for the Herald Tribune, syndicated columnist and editor of the New York Law Journal.
Kandel joined SABEW in its second year and holds the distinction of being its only two-time president – in 1976 and 1996.
Steffens enjoyed a long journalism career in various roles, including top editor, before she was named to the SABEW in business and financial journalism chair in 2002.
In her role, she teaches business and financial journalism, as well as organizing seminars for business journalism professionals. Steffens has taught hundreds of workshops over the years, and lectured in Russia, the Czech Republic, Norway, Jamaica and Italy, among other countries.
Before Missouri, she enjoyed a 30-year career in newspapers, including executive editor of the San Francisco Examiner, and earlier the Press & Sun Bulletin in Binghamton, N.Y.
Fortune is finalist for National Magazine Award
by Chris Roush
Fortune magazine is one of the four finalists in the general excellence category for the 2013 National Magazine Awards, run by the American Society of Magazine Editors.
The other finalists are National Geographic, New York and Wired.
Two business magazines are finalists in the single issue category. They are Bloomberg Businessweek for “Election Issue,” Oct. 15-21, and Fast Company for “The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies,” March.
In the leisure interest category, Wired is a finalist for for “How to Be a Geek Dad,” June. Bloomberg Businessweek is also a finalist in the tablet category.
In the public interest category, Consumer Reports is a finalist for “Arsenic in Your Juice,” January, and “Arsenic in Your Food,” November, by Andrea Rock.
Wired is also a finalist in the feature writing category for “Inside the Mansion–and the Mind–of Kim Dotcom, the Most Wanted Man on the Internet,” by Charles Graeber; November.
Known as the Ellies — for the Alexander Calder stabile “Elephant” given to each award winner — the National Magazine Awards will be presented on Thursday, May 2, at the New York Marriott Marquis.
See all the finalists here.
Two biz journalists named to NC Journalism Hall of Fame
by Chris Roush
Two famous business journalists — one for helping blaze a trail for women — have been named to the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame.
Wyndham Robertson is the former assistant managing editor of Fortune magazine and former business editor of Time magazine.
After graduating from Hollins College with an economics degree, Robertson worked as a junior analyst in the Economics Department of the Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey before joining Fortune as a researcher and reporter in 1961.
She was elected to Fortune’s board of editors in 1974 and was named assistant managing editor in 1981. She served as business editor of Time magazine from 1982-83 as part of an experimental program in which six Time Inc. editors temporarily switched magazines.
Her work has been honored with awards that include the Gerald M. Loeb Achievement Award for Distinguished Writing on Investment, Finance and Business and the American Journalism Historians Association Award for Breaking Gender Barriers in Journalism and Communication, among others.
Alan Murray, a journalism inductee, is the president of the Pew Research Center. He leads in setting the strategic direction of Pew Research, in consultation with Pew Research leadership, its board and The Pew Charitable Trusts.
Murray was previously deputy managing editor and executive editor, online, for The Wall Street Journal.
He previously served as CNBC’s Washington, D.C., bureau chief and was co-host of “Capital Report with Alan Murray and Gloria Borger.”
While working at CNBC, he wrote the Journal’s weekly “Political Capital” column. Prior to that, he spent a decade as the Washington bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal.
Murray received a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina and a master’s degree from the London School of Economics.
See all of the inductees here.
Biz journalists on Time’s list of best Twitter feeds
by Chris Roush
At least nine business journalists made the list of Time magazine’s 140 best Twitter feeds to follow.
They included CNBC.com’s John Carney. Time wrote, “Editor of CNBC.com’s NetNet blog, Carney concerns himself first and foremost with the high drama of Wall Street, but tweets on all business-related news as well – often with his tongue firmly in cheek.”
For Business Insider’s Joe Weisenthal, Time wrote, “The hardest-working man in financial news is tweeting out the latest consumer confidence data before you’ve had your morning cup of coffee, and movements in overseas markets long after you’ve gone to bed. Amazingly, he still has time to mount a defense of the trillion-dollar platinum coin somewhere in between.”
The Wall Street Journal’s Kelli Grant is on the list. Time wrote, “This Wall Street Journal consumer reporter offers a smart take on the best ways to spend and save. Grant balances links to her articles with personal anecdotes about her cats and upcoming wedding.”
For New York magazine’s Kevin Roose, Time wrote, “New York Magazine’s Kevin Roose breaks down business and technology news for people who don’t follow those topics closely. On Twitter, he adds a level of snark by calling out companies, consumers and everyone in between.”
For All Thing’s D’s Kara Swisher, Time wrote, “Founder and co-executive editor of AllThingsD.com, as well as a Wall Street Journal columnist, Swisher offers smart tweets on technology and startups.”
ABC News technology editor Joanna Stern is also listed. Time wrote, “The technology editor at ABC News, Stern chronicles all things gadgets with dedication and humor. Her feed is full of pop culture confessions, social media banter and misadventures with Vine.”
For The Verge’s Josh Topolsky, Time wrote, “Topolsky is the editor and co-founder of The Verge, a site that covers the intersection of technology and arts. His Twitter feed does the same with dispatches from TED, an early hands-on look at Google Glass and live tweets on the Oscars and Super Bowl.”
For ZDNet’s Ed Bott, Time wrote, “An award-winning author and journalist, Bott has owned the Microsoft, Windows and Office beat for much of his career. On Twitter, he doesn’t just bring experience, he’s got plenty of snark, too.”
Chicago Sun-Times tech columnist Andy Ihnatko is also on the list. Time wrote, “A tech columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, Ihnatko’s twitter feed keeps tabs on mobile gadgets, future innovations and pop culture for his 70,000 followers.”
Pittsburgh paper wins Scripps award for best business story
by Chris Roush
Lou Kilzer, Andrew Conte and Jim Wilhelm of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review received $10,000 and the William Brewster Styles Award for “$hadow Economy” on Friday when The Scripps Howard Foundation announced the winners of its annual Scripps Howard Awards, honoring the best work in journalism and journalism education in 2012.
In this yearlong project, the Tribune-Review reporters explored the legitimate and illegitimate uses of offshore accounts and shell companies. They documented the costs we all pay for wheeler-dealers who game the system.
The idea for the package originated in other investigative reporting about China and its extensive use of shell companies in the Cayman Islands and elsewhere. That led to the wide range of regulations in the United States by which some states – Wyoming and Delaware among them – make it easy for foreigners to hide money here.
It also evolved into a story pointing out to the U.S. government that about 20 companies want to export the bulk of America’s excess natural gas production overseas, where it will fetch far more money. That could cost the government billions in taxes because companies can create offshore shell subsidiaries and sell the gas to them at domestic prices.
Those companies, which exist only on paper, then could sell the gas at the higher international price and avoid U.S. taxes – or any taxes at all. The Trib found that 20 of the 25 largest publicly traded companies in the United States have subsidiaries in countries that the government has identified as tax havens or financial secrecy jurisdictions.
The finalists were Jill Riepenhoff and Mike Wagner of The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch for “Credit Scars.”
In addition, The Wall Street Journal received a distinguished award for service to the First Amendment and the Edward Willis Scripps Award for “Watched,” an ongoing project that exposes secretive ways personal information is tracked and used by corporate data-gatherers and government trackers.
Read about all of the winners here.
Retired Charlotte Observer biz columnist named to hall of fame
by Chris Roush
Retired longtime Observer reporter and business columnist Doug Smith will be inducted into the N.C. Hall of Fame in Journalism next month.
April Bethea of the Observer writes, “Smith, a native of Charlotte, retired from the Observer in 2009 after four decades with the paper and The Charlotte News. He held a variety of roles, including jobs as a reporter and an editor, and spent 19 years as a business columnist writing about development.
“In 2005, he launched ‘The Next Big Thing,’ a two-page spread on real estate trends across the region. The weekly feature launched during the development boom period, and Smith said he thought it was special to be able to pick the story of the week and home in on special angles about each project instead of writing a traditional story.
“Since retiring in 2009, Smith has done some consulting work. He admits he has missed the deadlines and adrenaline rush of working on a big story and hearing from readers. He still gets recognized by the public, he says.”
Read more here.
Series on non-profit hospitals wins ASNE award
by Chris Roush
A Charlotte Observer investigative series on North Carolina’s nonprofit hospitals was honored Wednesday with a major national journalism award.
A story on the Observer website states, “‘Prognosis: Profits,’ a 2012 series reported and produced jointly with the News and Observer of Raleigh, won the Distinguished Writing Award for Local Accountability Reporting from the American Society of News Editors.
“The series explored large profits at nonprofit hospitals, highlighted huge salaries for some executives and reported on efforts of the hospitals to sue patients delinquent on their bills or send patients who couldn’t pay to collection agencies. Follow-up stories revealed that hospitals were marking up prices on cancer drugs as much as 50 times over cost, and showed how hospitals’ acquisitions of doctors’ practices has driven up the cost of care.
“Charlotte Observer investigative reporter Ames Alexander and medical reporter Karen Garloch reported and wrote the series, which was edited by senior editor Jim Walser. In Raleigh, investigative reporter Joseph Neff and database editor David Raynor reported and wrote the stories, which were edited by senior editor Steve Riley.
“Judges said the series was ‘grounded in meticulous reporting and presented in elegant and sophisticated form. … This is a model of newspapers holding powerful local interests accountable and has ignited efforts for reform.’
“The series has won three other national awards: the Bronze Medal in the annual Barlett and Steele Awards for Investigative Business Journalism; the investigative reporting award for mid-sized dailies from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers; and second place in investigative reporting from the Association of Health Care Journalists.”
