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Tuesday, May 19th 1998 Media Cynic | Forum | Advertising | Classifieds | Jobs Winners and Finalists in Loeb Competition Announced William P. Pierskalla, chairman of the G. and R. Loeb Foundation Inc., Monday announced the winners of the 1998 Gerald Loeb Awards for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism. The awards are among the highest honors in the journalism profession. Alan Abelson, columnist for Barron's, is the 1998 recipient of the Loeb Foundation's Lifetime Achievement Award. "Few journalists have been as influential as Alan Abelson. For 41 years he has given us his insights, wisdom and a moral view of a world in which ethics and straight dealings are often rare commodities," said Pierskalla. The winner in the large newspaper category (circulation of more than 400,000) is Michael Siconolfi for "The Spin Desk," his page one article on the practice of "spinning," which revealed how investment banks allocate hot IPOs to the personal accounts of corporate executives in an apparent bid for business, in The Wall Street Journal. Also nominated as finalists in this category were: The Wall Street Journal staff for its coverage of "Asia's Economic Crisis," also in The Wall Street Journal; the Newsday staff for "On Thin Ice," an investigative series which uncovered fraudulent business practices by John Spano, including his bid to purchase the NHL's New York Islanders, in Newsday; Keith Bradsher for "Light Trucks, Heavy Risk," an exhaustive investigation that disclosed safety and environmental problems posed by sports utility vehicles and minivans, in The New York Times; and Kurt Eichenwald, Martin Gottlieb, Josh Barbanel, N.R. Kleinfield, and Tamar Lewin for "Health Care's Giant," an investigative series on the government's probe of Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp.'s for-profit health-care practices, in The New York Times. The winner in the medium-size newspaper category (circulation between 150,000 and 400,000), is William Conroy, Nancy Shields, John T. Ward, Larry Arnold, Rick Linsk and Terri Somers for "House of Cards," an investigative series which uncovered and unraveled one of the most massive real estate frauds in the state's history, in the Asbury Park Press. The winner in the small newspaper category (circulation of less than 150,000), is Amy Hetzner and Amy Baldwin for "Borrowing Trouble," an investigative series detailing the state's lending practices and how it affects the poor, in the Birmingham Post-Herald. The winner in the magazine category is Michael Mandel and Dean Foust for their "New Economy" package, which provided intuitive and on-target economic analysis, in Business Week. The winner in the commentary category is Allan Sloan for selected commentaries, in Newsweek. The winner in the deadline/beat writing category is Alix Freedman and Suein Hwang for their breakthrough coverage of the tobacco industry's liability settlement, in The Wall Street Journal. Thirty preliminary judges representing the media and academia made the preliminary (finalist) selections. The winners were selected by a distinguished panel of 12 final judges. The 1998 Gerald Loeb Award winners and finalists as well as the Lifetime Achievement Award recipient will be honored at an awards banquet on June 22 at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York. Mercury Center News Site Moves to Free Subscription Mercury Center, the online edition of the San Jose Mercury News, announced that it will no longer charge a fee to subscribers. The announcement was made as the news service marked its fifth anniversary. The first online news provider to deliver the full daily contents of a major American newspaper on a national service, Mercury Center has been an industry leader since its launch in 1993 on America Online. Though its subscriber base was substantial and contributed significantly to site revenue, Mercury Center officials expect the announcement to expand its audience, both in the U.S. and internationally. "Mercury Center's business model has evolved along with the Web. We're pleased we can now offer our content to readers for free, which will also help set the stage for our next five years of growth," said Bob Ryan, Director of Mercury Center. "Though our customers have proved they are willing to pay a premium for Mercury Center content, the site is in expansion mode; we believe that dropping subscription fees, and other moves that we will announce later this year, will help reinforce our position worldwide as the online news source for Silicon Valley." Titanic Phenomenon Sparks Trend in Reading for Children and Young Adults There is a growing trend among children and teens -- reading all that is written on the infamous journey of the Titanic. While the Titanic movie is the biggest grossing movie of all time and the soundtrack continues to dominate the charts, children of all ages have also been flocking to their local libraries and bookstores for more on the mighty ship. Scholastic, a publisher of books for kids of all ages, has sold over 2 million copies of its six fiction and non-fiction Titanic books, including a Leonardo DiCaprio scrapbook. Several of Scholastic's Titanic titles continue to appear on bestseller lists including Titanic Crossing, which was #3 on Publishers Weekly Fiction Bestsellers List in April. "One of the most wonderful aspects of the Titanic phenomenon is that teens and pre-teens are now showing an increased fascination for books on the Titanic," said Barbara Marcus, Executive Vice President, Scholastic Books. "Due to the appeal of the movie, children are interested in reading about history, the tragedy, and the heartthrob, Leo. It's the true story of the Titanic that fascinates young readers." Scholastic's current Titanic-based titles include: Titanic Crossing by Barbara Williams; Exploring the Titanic by Robert D. Ballard and Ken Marschall; Finding the Titanic by Robert D. Ballard with paintings by Ken Marschall; Titanic: The Long Night by Diane Hoh; Travelers Through Time #1: Back to the Titanic! by Beatrice Gormley; and Lovin' Leo: Your Leonardo DiCaprio Keepsake Scrapbook. In response to the overwhelming demand for books on the Titanic, Scholastic will be releasing three new titles based on the Titanic: 882-1/2 Amazing Answers To Your Questions About the Titanic (December 1998; $16.95; Ages 8-12) by Barbara Hehner and Laurie Coulter with illustrations by Ken Marschall; Exploring the Titanic (Repackaged; December 1998; $15.95; Ages 8-12) by Robert D. Ballard and Ken Marschall and Dear America - Voyage of the Great Titanic: The Diary of Margaret Ann Brady; RMS Titanic, 1912 (September 1998; $9.95; Ages 9-14) by Ellen Emerson White Millennium Publications Announces the Launch of Gamers' Republic Millennium Publications Inc., a in magazine and specialty book publishing for the interactive entertainment market, announced the launch of its flagship magazine Gamers' Republic. Hitting newsstands this week with its premier issue, the multi-format publication will offer monthly coverage of the latest news and information on next generation consoles, cutting-edge PC hardware and game software for all major platforms. Millennium Publications was founded by game industry veteran Dave Halverson. The editorial team behind Gamers' Republic will be led by Editorial Director David Hodgson, a game journalist who has written for over ten game publications in both Europe and North America. Hodgson's staff includes accomplished gamers who will provide interactive game reporting. Gamers' Republic will be available through a national distribution network, which includes software specialty stores, major booksellers and mass-market retail outlets. ClickZ Network and Rick E. Bruner Launch 'Executive Summary' for Web Marketers The ClickZ Network, a family of Web advertising and e-commerce trade publications online, and Rick E. Bruner, an Internet analyst and strategic Web marketing consultant, launched today Executive Summary, a free weekly email and Web-based newsletter for Web marketing professionals. The anewsletter focuses on Internet advertising and electronic commerce issues. In addition, Executive Summary will include book reviews, reader mail and other occasional sections. "Rick's expert analysis and research skills are a strong addition to the ClickZ's family of publications," said Andy Bourland, publisher of the ClickZ Network. "We are proud to offer our readers the regular insights of one of the industry's premier strategic thinkers." CareerMosaic Launches National Online Job Fair With Yahoo! CareerMosaic®, the leading site for professional jobs on the Internet, today launched the a national online job fair with Yahoo!. The event, which will reach millions of Yahoo! and CareerMosaic users, features employers Boeing, Ernst & Young LLP, Ingram Micro, KPMG, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Northrop Grumman/Logicon, Olympus, Seagate, and Smith Barney. The job fair, which will run through June 1, is part of a multimillion dollar global advertising agreement between CareerMosaic and Yahoo! announced in November, 1997. Job seekers can access the job fair via Yahoo!'s home page as well as CareerMosaic's home page. The fair features participating employers, with their corporate logos displayed, and offers job seekers a chance to win a prize valued at $10,000 by entering a sweepstakes contest. Each corporate logo takes users to a page with information on each company, job openings, and an online response form. Microsoft/Justice Department Editorial Cartoons Online A new website features political cartoons about Microsoft from top newspaper cartoonists around the world. The site, "Microsoft, Bill Gates and the Justice Department Anti-trust Case by All the Top Editorial Cartoonists" is updated daily with the newest Microsoft cartoons from more than fifty award winning cartoonists including Pulitzer Prize winners Jim Borgman, Mike Peters, Jeff MacNelly, Mike Luckovich and Signe Wilkinson. The cartoons depict Bill Gates as "Gateszilla," Darth Vader, and an octopus, among other things. "We will post new Microsoft cartoons daily, as they appear in the newspapers," said Daryl Cagle, a Hawaiian editorial cartoonist who put together the Microsoft site as part of a website called "The Professional Cartoonists Index". All the cartoons are presented with the permission of the cartoonists. "We started off with a site devoted to the White House Sex Scandal. The scandal site has been wildly popular; it now has close to six hundred cartoons and often gets more than 100,000 visitors per day." said Cagle, "It looks like the cartoonists will be drawing Bill Gates and Ken Starr forever." Click here to return to the homepage of The Write NewsTM Click here to subscribe to our free weekly email newsletter.  www.writenews.com Copyright © 1997-2007 by Writers Write, Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
