Daily Newspapers | Business Weeklies | Real-Time || BIB 2007 Winners Home
Jack Gillum. Christie Smythe and David Wichner. "First Magnus Meltdown." Arizona Daily Star.
Judges' Comments:
Strong package that explained the far-reaching impact caused by the sudden shutdown of a major employer. The stories provided nice detail and background and quoted a broad range of stakeholders and community experts. Good use of info boxes. Excellent front-page treatment breaking down the impact for all the different stakeholders. Good use of wire to illustrate the broader industry context and causes for the mortgage industry meltdown.
[4124BR] A1-PDF, A1-JPG, Biz-PDF
Carol Benfell. "Hospital Closure." The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, Calif.)
Judges' Comments:
An excellent example of aggressive investigative reporting on a story with significant community impact. Strong use of multiple entry points including Q&As, timelines and maps. The story not only breaks important news, it provides broad context explaining the impact of the closure.
[4188BR] A1-PDF, A1-JPG, A7-PDF
Kathy Jumper , George Talbot, Russ Henderson, Sebastion Kitchen, Dan Murtaugh, Kaija Wilkinson and Jeff Amy. "Towering Triumphs." Press-Register (Mobile, Ala.)
Judges' Comments:
Broad far-reaching package on a breaking news topic. Good combination of news and sidebars. The information on the economic incentives provided to the company and the chart comparing them to incentives given to other companies was a wonderful "peeling back the onion" type of story that you don't often see. Smart use of wire to round out the package and illustrate the impact on the community that was not chosen.
[4451BR] Binder-PDF, BinderP1-PDF
Kristi Arellano - The Denver Post
Andrea Gabor - Baruch College/City College of New York
Jane Light - Reuters
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Stella M. Hopkins, Adam Bell, Gail Smith-Arrants, Sharif Durhams, Christopher D. Kirkpatrick, Tommy Tomlinson, Kat Greene, Marion Paynter, Mark Johnson and David Ingram. "Philip Morris Quits North Carolina." The Charlotte Observer.
Judges' Comments:
It's hard to imagine bigger business news than a hometown industry moving overseas - especially when it's a tobacco company in the Carolinas. Philip Morris' decision was a closely guarded secret, so the paper had to marshal resources quickly. And it delivered a clear, comprehensive report, complete with a comparison to the departure of the state's textile and furniture industries years earlier, and the likelihood of the company spinning off its international division.
[4305BR] PDF
Amos Maki. "Toyota's Decision," The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tenn.)
Judges' Comments:
The true test of a breaking news story is whether it beat the competition, and the Commercial Appeal was the only entry in this category to do so. Instead of waiting for Toyota to announce the news, the paper used its sources in the losing cities to find out that the automaker was going to build its new plant in Tupelo, Miss. The judges did find the story a bit hard to dissect, with a roll call of officials who had no information or no comment and a quote from another journalist that didn¹t explain how he knew what he knew. But a good scoop is a good scoop.
[4693BR] JPG, PDF (3.5 MB)
Bill Vlasic, Sharon Terlep, Louis Aguilar, Daniel Howes, Christine Tierney, Eric Morath, Nathan Hurst, Bryce G. Hoffman, Josee Valcourt and Brian J. O'Connor. "UAW Strike."
Detroit News.
Judges' Comments:
The News could have won three prizes in this contest. (The biz staff had a busy year, with the strike, the sale of Chrysler and the departure of Pfizer.) This one stood out for sheer effort. The paper obviously had a strike plan in place, and it delivered - with a main story, a column, six sidebars, a timeline and some great photography. The report was well-sourced and balanced and demonstrated decades of experience on the beat.
[4791BR] 1A-PDF, 6A-PDF, 7A-PDF, 1C-PDF, 2C-PDF, 3C-PDF
Paul Foutch - Dallas Morning News
Scott Maier - University of Oregon
Mark Meltzer - Atlanta Business Chronicle
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Business Staff. "GM/UAW Settlement." Detroit Free Press.
Judges' Comments:
Comprehensive, well organized and pulls no punches. This is high-impact coverage of a story with huge implications for a major company, labor and U.S. manufacturing. The key issue, health care, is explained in strong detail. The story also takes time to address the impact on individual workers, and the personal stories detailing their doubts, optimism and anxiety make readers feel as if they are at the plant gate, listening to workers as they head in.
[4533BR] 1G-PDF, 2G-PDF, 3G-PDF, 4G-PDF, 5G-PDF, 6G-PDF, 7G-PDF
Business Staff. "Pfizer Breaking News." Detroit Free Press.
Judges' Comments:
Authoritative coverage in every way. The story excelled in following the potential ripple effects of the news down every conceivable direction, from the governor's office to the shops in Ann Arbor to Pfizer's worldwide reach. After reading the package, you understand the company's motivations, the governor's guilt and the area's angst.
[4534BR] 1A-JPG, 1A-PDF, 4A-PDF, 5A-PDF, 6A-PDF, 7A-PDF
Rob Reuteman, Roger Fillion, Chris Walsh, David Milstead and Joyzelle Davis. "Coors-Miller Merger." Rocky Mountain News (Denver).
Judges' Comments:
This package hops through all angles of the major beer merger clearly and cleanly. Another major selling point is the effort to spin ahead -- what might the deal mean to everything from jobs, to the brewing process, to Pete Coors, to the impact on major competitor Anheuser-Busch. The two columns add nice perspective, as did the story about the Coors family. The graphic presentation also is a nice plus.
[4605BR] PDF1, PDF2, PDF3, PDF4, PDF5, PDF6
Kathy Tulumello - The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com
Jon Chesto - The Patriot Ledger (Quincy, Mass.)
Bennie DiNardo - The Boston Globe
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Patti Bond, Robert Luke, Tom Walker, Maria Saporta, Matt Kempner, Marilyn Geewax and Duane D. Stanford. "Nardelli’s Departure from Home Depot." The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Judges comments:
This comprehensive package shows how a metro daily can cover all the national and local angles of a high-profile executive departure. A strong main story and sidebar gave both detail and perspective on the surprise resignation and huge severance package. Other sidebars rounded out the package with a strong profile of new CEO Frank Blake; perspective on the company’s lagging stock price; reaction from executive pay critics in Washington; the impact on customers in Home Depot stores; reaction from civic leaders; and quotes from Home Depot founders Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank. There was something here for every type of reader: investors, shoppers, local residents, business leaders and news junkies.
[4450BR] A1-PDF, A10-PDF, A1-JPG
Robin Sidel, Aaron Lucchetti, Monica Langley, Carrick Mollenkamp, David Reilly and David Enrich. "The Fall of a Citigroup Prince." The Wall Street Journal.
Judges comments:
Charles Prince’s departure from Citigroup provided a great deadline news story. But The Wall Street Journal, after confirming on a Friday evening that he would resign over the weekend, elevated it into a spellbinding saga for Monday morning’s paper. Details of his fall from grace and background about the bank’s troubles were a perfect blend of analysis and good storytelling. The unique corporate culture of Citigroup and its special place in world finance made this story compelling, necessary and full of immediate impact. It wasn’t hard to make this one a winner for Breaking News.
[4581BR] PDF1, PDF1-jump, PDF2, PDF2-jump, PDF3, PDF3-jump
Krishna Guha, Michael Mackenzie, Saskia Scholtes and Gillian Tett. "Federal Reserve." The Financial Times.
Judges comments:
Decisions by the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates were front- page news last year as financial markets turned to turmoil amid the subprime meltdown. But the Financial Times’ coverage of the Dec. 11 FOMC decision stands out because reporter Krishna Guha both captured the market’s reaction and broke significant news that even more extraordinary measures to stem the credit crisis were imminent. He added a companion story explaining the role of the Federal Home Loan Bank system. Both stories stand out for their ability to make complex financial issues understandable to any reader and for going many levels beyond the immediate breaking news.
[4676BR] JPG
Fed set to revamp liquidity support
Fed to overhaul provision of market liquidity
Bank co-ops keep US afloat
Steve Kaskovich - Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Gregg Fields - Miami Herald and Florida Atlantic University
Paul Harloff - The Associated Press
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Brent Snavely. "Icahn on Lear: Company Positioned Well in Industry." Crain's Detroit Business.
Judges' comments:
The reporter showed enterprise in nabbing Icahn for an interview and delivered a well-written story on a tight deadline.
[4312BR]
Icahn on Lear: Company Positioned Well in Industry
Andrew Osterland, Marine Cole, Matthew Quinn, Nicholas Rummell and Frank Byrt. "Credit Crunch." Financial Week.
Judges' comments:
The package of stories was forward-looking and did a good job explaining a complicated topic.
[4726BR] PDF
Stephanie Kang - Wall Street Journal
Spencer Ante - BusinessWeek
Bob Arnold - Ratings Direct Standard and Poors
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Scott Lanman, Brendan Murray, Matthew Brockett, Caroline Salas, Anthony Massucci, Lynn Thomasson and Shannon Harrington. "Bernanke's World Unravels." Bloomberg News.
Judges' Comments:
Scott Lanman and Bloomberg reacted first to the news then branched out with regular updates on its impacts and the context, particularly with the "Poole skipped Fed's conference call,'' and the "Retracted memos, canceled vacations: Fed cut surprises traders,'' a nice touch to a fairly dry topic that went far beyond the numbers and added a human element. Bloomberg showed its depth with a prescient story the night before the morning of the Fed’s surprise rate cut, then orchestrated a crescendo of coverage that put readers inside the story and prepared them for what would follow.
[4162BR] TOC-PDF, 1-PDF, 2-PDF, 3-PDF, 4-PDF, 5-PDF, 6-PDF (unavailable), 7-PDF
Stephen Wisnefski, John Stoll and Paul Vigna. "Daimler Chrysler Stock Moves Into High Gear On Dow Jones Newswires Scoop." Dow Jones Newswires.
Judges' Comments:
Dow Jones’ report of Chrysler's time on the selling block was a great example of breaking news online: John Stoll was first to report Kerkorian's $4.5 billion bid; a press release 40 minutes later came for other news outlets. The story was regularly updated with layers of new information, new sources, and lots of detail drilled all the way down to its potential impact on employees. The efforts of Stoll to cultivate a source close to Kerkorian served readers well. He provides proof that shoe leather and persistence pay off when the big story breaks.
[4682BR] JPG
Tony Gnoffo - The Philadelphia Inquirer
Wendy Fullerton Powell - Fort Myers News-Press
Brian Hyslop - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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