SABEW Announces Best in Business Winners

Posted on April 16, 2002

The Society of American Business Editors and Writers Inc. (SABEW) has named the winners in its eighth annual Best in Business contest, which recognizes the best overall publications and best breaking news and spot enterprise reporting in business journalism during 2001. SABEW, headquartered at the Missouri School of Journalism, is an association of more than 3,000 business journalists in North America.

568 entries from daily newspapers, business weeklies, wire services and business news online sites were received, including 454 stories or story packages in the news portion of the contest. Last year, the contest received 492 total entries.

Judges handed out a special award for "Extraordinary Achievement" to The Wall Street Journal for its coverage of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. It was the first time in the contest's eight-year history that a special award was given out.

The judges said: "Sometimes awards that exist are inadequate to recognize the magnitude of an accomplishment. So it is this year with the Wall Street Journal's first-day coverage of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Newsrooms across the country reacted swiftly to the events of Sept. 11 and produced an array of business coverage on Sept. 12, including stories on paralyzed airlines, closed financial markets, a waning economy, the buying of guns, and jacked-up gas prices. Fine packages were entered in this contest from newspapers of all sizes.

"But none can compare with the Wall Street Journal. A prescient front-page takeout explored the issue of lax airport security, identifying problem areas that would become topics of national debate for months. Other stories covered the closed financial markets, World Trade Center tenants, and the effects of the attacks on the economy, energy prices and insurers.

"If the Journal's offices had been in midtown Manhattan, the paper would have been the clear winner in the Giant newspaper category. But to have produced stories of this breadth, with this much context and insight, after many staff members literally fled for their lives and the ranks did not know whether senior editors had survived is an unparalleled accomplishment worthy of special recognition."

Other highlights of the contest included:

• Seventeen daily or weekly publications were named Best in Business for overall excellence, and five were recognized with certificates of merit. The Boston Globe won for the fourth straight year, the San Jose Mercury News won for the third straight year and USA Today, the Portland Oregonian, Las Vegas Sun and Cincinnati Business Courier were repeat winners.
• A dozen news organizations were named Best in Business for breaking news coverage. This category recognizes news organizations that produced superior work under tight deadlines.
• Seventeen were named Best in Business for Spot Enterprise, a category that honors work that is timely but provides a broader, more analytical look at an issue.

The SABEW Best in Business contest was started in 1995 to help set standards and recognize role models for outstanding business journalism. Awards will be presented Monday, April 29, at the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort in Phoenix, Ariz., during SABEW's 39th annual conference. Winning sections will be on display at the hotel. Judges' comments for all winners will be available on April 15th at the organization website.

Best in Business winners for overall excellence, by category and listed in alphabetical: (Judges could name up to five winners in each category)

GIANT (General-interest newspapers with average daily circulation 375,001 and above)

• Boston Globe
• Dallas Morning News
• San Francisco Chronicle
• Washington Post
• USA Today

LARGE (Newspapers with circulation 250,001 -375,000)

• The Portland Oregonian
• San Jose Mercury News

  Certificates of merit: The Plain Dealer (Cleveland), The Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel

MID-SIZED (Newspapers with circulation 125,001-250,000)

• The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.
• The State, Columbia, S.C.
• The World-Herald, Omaha, Neb.

  Certificates of Merit: St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer-Press, Montreal Gazette

SMALL (Newspapers with circulation up to 125,000)

• Santa Rosa (Calif.) Press-Democrat
• Las Vegas Sun
• Waterbury Republican-American

  Certificate of Merit: The Columbian in Vancouver, Wash.

BUSINESS WEEKLIES

• Cincinnati Business Courier
• Electronic Media
• Crain's Chicago Business
• Washington (D.C.) Business Journal

NEWS CONTEST

Best in Business Breaking News winners, by category and in alphabetical order: (Judges could name up to three winners in each category)

GIANT (Newspapers with circulation over 375,001)

• Newsday, "Texas investor mounts proxy fight for Computer Associates," by staff.

• Washington Post, "Microsoft Breakup Order Reversed," by James V. Grimaldi, Carrie Johnson, Jonathan Krim, Ariana Cha, Alex Klein, Carol Vincent.

LARGE (Newspapers with circulation 250,001 -375,000)

• Seattle Times, "Boeing Bolts," by Kyung Song, Stephen H. Dunphy and staff.

• Cleveland Plain Dealer, "LTV Shutdown Begins," by Jennifer Scott Cimperman.

• New Orleans Times-Picayune, "Entergy and FPL pull the plug on merger," by Keith Darce, Mary Judice, Susan Finch, John Biers

MID-SIZE (Newspapers with circulation 125,001-250,000)

• Seattle Post-Intelligencer, "Boeing Picks Chicago," by James Wallace

• Contra Costa (Calif.) Times, "PG&E Unplugged," by staff

• Louisville Courier-Journal, "Mysterious disease killing foals at state's horse farms," by Kirsten Haukebo

SMALL (Newspapers with circulation up to 125,000)

• Erie (Pa.) Times-News, "IP to close," by staff

• The Burlington (Vt.) Free Press, "IBM lays off 500," by Aki Soga, Sue Robinson, Leslie Wright, Cadence Mertz

WEEKLIES

• Silicon Valley Business Ink, "Sharks fishing for new owners," by Christina Bellantoni

• Dayton Business Journal, "Brokers dropping Dean," by Patrick L. Thimangu

REAL-TIME

• CNET News.com, "Microsoft's reprieve," by staff

Best in Business Spot Enterprise winners: (Judges could name up to three winners in each category)

GIANT (Newspapers with circulation over 375,001)

• Star Tribune, Minneapolis, "More bans, less help for smokers," by David Phelps and Deborah Caulfield Rybak

• The Wall Street Journal, "Corporate Veil: Behind Enron's fall, a culture of operating outside the public's view," by John R. Emshwiller and Rebecca Smith

• The Washington Post, "Stocks to trade Monday with special rule," by Kathleen Day and John M. Berry

LARGE (Newspapers with circulation 250,001-375,000)

• The Plain Dealer (Cleveland), "The last shift," by Tom Breckenridge, Peter Krouse, Sandra Livingston, Jennifer Scott Cimperman, Thomas W. Gerdel, Alison Grant, Karen Farkas, Mya Frazier

• The Detroit News, "Age bias claims jolt Ford culture change," by Mark Truby

• The New Orleans Times-Picayune, "The art of the deal," by Rebecca Mowbray

MID-SIZED (Newspapers with circulation 125,001-250,000)

• Richmond Times-Dispatch, "The great baby bottle battle," by Bob Rayner

• Charlotte Observer, "Students see strong future in textiles jobs" by Tony Mecia - Hartford Courant, "A company works to carry on," by Matthew Kauffman

SMALL (Newspapers with circulation up to 125,000)

• Huntsville (Ala.) Times, "The Rocket's Red Ink," by Brian Lawson

• The Register-Guard, Eugene, Ore., "Dealmaker," by Joe Harwood, Susan Palmer and Christian Wihtol

• The Daily Record, Baltimore, "Power (Plant) Surge," by Amy L. Bernstein

WEEKLIES

• Atlanta Business Chronicle, "Georgia's tax giveaway," by Meredith Jordan

• Orange County Business Journal, "Change sweeping through Baja's Border Plants," by Chris Cziborr

• Washington Business Journal, "The National question," by Mike Sunnucks

REAL-TIME

• Bloomberg News, "El Paso Corp. secured off-balance sheet financing" by Russell Hubbard

• Dow Jones Newswires, "Treasury's 30-year bond news relayed by consultant during embargo" by John Connor

• Bloomberg News, "Khashoggi firm may have kept $125 million as stock fell," by David Evans

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