Winners named for best in real estate journalism

The National Association of Real Estate Editors announced Friday the winners of its 63rd Annual Journalism Awards, recognizing excellence in reporting, writing and editing stories about residential and commercial real estate.

Daniel DiClerico with Robert Tiernan, Andrea Rock, Martin Romm and Anna Veksler from Consumer Reports magazine received NAREE’s Platinum Award for Best Individual Entry.

Andrea Brambila of Inman News was honored with the Gold Award for the Ruth Ryon Best Entry by a Young Journalist; Eliot Brown of the Wall Street Journal earned the Silver Award.

The President’s Gold Award for Best Freelance Collection went to Matt Hudgins, Freelance/New York Times, with Katherine Salant earning the Silver Award for her freelance work.

A panel of expert judges from the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University selected all award winners. Professor Patrick S. Washburn, a former news reporter and editor, chaired the panel.

The category winners are:

Category 1: Best Breaking News Report
Gold Award: Matthew Goldstein and Jennifer Ablan, Reuters
Judges’ Comment on Gold Award: “The reporters examined a new approach to the U.S. housing crisis: allowing government officials to use their eminent domain powers to restructure home mortgages. As the writers noted, this long-time government power may be a new approach to addressing underwater mortgages. It is written in such a way that a complex process is explained clearly.”

Category 2: Best Investigative Report or Investigative Series
Gold Award: Andrea Brambila, Inman News
Judges’ Comment on Gold Award: “This story uncovered some of the problems associated with the National Association of Realtors’ property data base that is used by the group’s one million members as well as many consumers. The reporter obtained information using internal NAR documents and interviews, making for a compelling and disturbing story.”

Category 3: Best Column
Gold Award: Katherine Salant, Freelance
Judges’ Comment on Gold Award: “This columnist writes about diverse topics with equal ease.  The stories would be of wide interest to consumers and her writing style is crisp and concise.”

Category 4: Best Series by an Individual
Gold Award: Randyl Drummer, CoStar News
Judges’ Comment on Gold Award: “The reporter’s stories reported on the interesting phenomenon of the gap between strong and weak mall properties, which prompted a sell-off of weaker properties, leading to the redevelopment or the repurposing of some of them. The question is who wants to buy a dying mall, and these stories answered that. The writing is clear and avoids jargon and explains the developments in a way that both lay people and developers can understand.”

Category 5: Best Collection of Work by an Individual
Gold Award: Nancy Keates, Wall Street Journal
Judges’ Comment on Gold Award: “In the contest’s largest category, this reporter stood out with stories about expensive homes of college head football coaches, a reclusive billionaire and his huge amounts of property, and more and more city owners building glass homes. The article about the football coaches was particularly noteworthy because of the amount of detail and the interesting writing. As for the glass houses story, it stood out because it was about an unreported national trend.”

Category 6: Best Home & Design Feature
Gold Award: Lauren Beale, Los Angeles Times
Judges’ Comment on Gold Award: “This was a new angle on the rich and the famous: how they are building more and more bathrooms in expensive houses as a status symbol and a style statement. The reporter looked closely at the home of Adrian Beltre, a former member of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and noted that his home has sixteen bathrooms, which his wife said are all used. The reporter provided an excellent example of what all newspaper reporters are told: Keep the reader turning the page.”

Category 7: Best Residential Real Estate Report in a Daily Newspaper
Gold Award: Jamie Smith Hopkins, Baltimore Sun
Judges’ Comment on Gold Award: “This story illustrated the paradox of unsold Baltimore condominiums that are taxed as if they are empty lots, playing a role in the city losing a large amount of much-needed tax money. It is gracefully written, clearly structured, and packs a punch.”

Category 8: Best Mortgage or Financial Real Estate Report in a Daily Newspaper
Gold Award: Pete Carey, San Jose Mercury News
Judges’ Comment on Gold Award: “The reporter chronicled a house stuck with more than a dozen adults as well as pets; the tenants were unaware that the house was foreclosed and they faced eviction. Using objective and highly interesting reporting, the story laid out the details and in effect told how the foreclosed house became ‘a mini-motel.’”

Category 9: Best Commercial Real Estate Report in a Daily Newspaper
Gold Award: Eliot Brown, Wall Street Journal
Judges’ Comment on Gold Award: “This story focused on an entertainment district that was supposed to revive downtown Kansas City but ended up costing the city unexpected millions in debt service. In the bigger picture, this revealed problems in a federal urban development program. The reporter does a good job of explaining how a well-intended effort could go wrong.”

Category 10: Best Report in a Daily Newspaper under 150,000 Circulation
Gold Award: Alicia Wallace, Boulder Daily Camera
Judges’ Comment on Gold Award: “After repeated efforts to enter the Boulder, Colo., market, Walmart had always been met with opposition from local citizens. The reporter used various methods to determine the owner of a new building in the city. The methods included checking paint samples and building designs of Walmart grocery stores in the Denver area. Then, she wrote an engaging and enterprising story about what she had found, thus rendering a valuable public service.”

Category 11: Best Report in a Weekly Business Newspaper
Gold Award: Jeanne Jones, Puget Sound Business Journal
Judges’ Comment on Gold Award: “A spectacular dissection of the rise and fall of a Seattle-area real estate king, this story showed not only how he built his empire but how it collapsed, resulting in him finally being apprehended by the French police after sixteen months in hiding. The story outlined the ripple effects of his actions across the U.S. It is crisply written in a high-impact style.”

Category 12: Best Residential, Mortgage or Financial Real Estate Report in a Magazine
Gold Award: Camilla McLaughlin, Freelance/Unique Homes
Judges’ Comment on Gold Award: “This story examined the effect of government regulations in Asia, focusing on luxury real estate in six geographic regions. It was a comprehensive and interesting look at something in the real estate area that most Americans probably know little about.”

Category 13: Best Trade Magazine Report on Residential Real Estate, Mortgage/Finance, or Home Building/Residential Development Industries
Gold Award: Ted Cushman, Builder Magazine
Judges’ Comment on Gold Award: “Using interviews with not only builders but volunteers and people who lost homes, this reporter gave a graphic picture of rebuilding Joplin, Mo., after it was hit by a tornado that killed 161 people. The story illustrated the impact that a natural disaster can have on a town. The reporter particularly was able to make the story vivid because he visited Joplin after the disaster.”

Category 14: Best Trade Magazine Report on the Commercial Real Estate Industry
Gold Award: Adam Pincus, Real Deal
Judges’ Comment on Gold Award: “Using tax records, the reporter developed the first-ever ranking of how much money the top-ranking New York City landlords made in one year. These never-before published figures illustrated a crucial part of the real estate business in Manhattan. The story stood out because of the initiative shown by the reporter.”

Category 15: Best Residential Mortgage or Financial Real Estate Report or Feature
Gold Award: Paul Hagey, Inman News
Judges’ Comment on Gold Award: “This story examined the implications of Minnesota’s large brokerage firm, Edina Realty, withholding listings from national web sites. The reporter examined in detail the ramifications of this decision, all of those affected, and the benefits to the firm. Inman News is to be complimented for giving the reporter enough space to cover the story in a detailed manner.”

Category 16: Best Commercial Real Estate Report
Gold Award: David Levitt, Bloomberg News
Judges’ Comment on Gold Award: “This was a highly interesting story about a New York City landmark, the Empire State Building, and the jousting over control of the property. The story illustrated not only the financial aspects but the very human dimensions of the dispute. The writing makes for compelling reading.”

Category 17: Best Blog
Gold Award: Candace Evans, Joanna England, CandysDirt.com
Judges’ Comment on Gold Award: “This is a sassy look at some of the most expensive housing in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The writing is breezy without being flippant.”

Category 18: Best Broadcast Report—Online, Radio or Television—on Local, Network or Cable Channels
Gold Award: Valerie Kellogg, Newsday
Judges’ Comment on Gold Award: “This ‘inside tour’ of high-priced homes for sale on Long Island shows beautifully what it is like to live with the rich if you can afford that type of housing. The comments fit well with the visuals.”

Category 19: Best Team Report
Gold Award: John Gittelsohn and Prashant Gopal, Bloomberg News
Judges’ Comment on Gold Award: “This was a complicated topic that was made very readable and interesting. Examining the severe housing default levels in New Jersey, the reporters humanized the topic with numerous interviews. It made good use of hard data to present a true slice of life.”

Category 20: Best Newspaper Real Estate or Home Section
Gold Award: Emily Gitter, Wall Street Journal
Judges’ Comment on Gold award: “This section is a sophisticated mix of story topics, packaged in a pleasing manner. It is quality, not fluff. It would appeal to a broad audience, not just those interested in real estate.”

Category 21: Best Design, Home or Shelter Magazine
Gold Award: Veronica Chao, Susann Althoff, Greg Klee, Josue Evilla, Marni Elyse Katz, Jaci Conry, Christie Matheson, Carol Stocker and JoeAnn Hart, Boston Globe Magazine
Judges’ Comment on Gold Award: “This represents a real investment in reporting, editing, and design talent by the newspaper. There is a solid mix of topics for a broad variety of readers.”

Category 22: Best Residential Trade Magazine
Gold Award: Denise Dersin, Gillian Berenson, Teresa Burney, John Caufield, Brian Wilson, Amy Albert, Nigel Maynard, Deborah Leopold and Rich Binsacca, Builder Magazine
Judges’ Comment on Gold Award: “This is a beautifully designed magazine with a lot of content. The page tabs, which had to be expensive to use, are a nice touch and very helpful for readers who are navigating the content.”

Category 23: Best Commercial Trade Magazine
Gold Award: Stuart Elliott, Jill Noonan and Candace Taylor, The Real Deal Magazine
Judges’ Comment on Gold Award: “This magazine is very practical with striking graphics and a tremendous amount of information. The design is strong and engages the reader.”

Category 24: Best Newsletter
Gold Award: Andrea Waitrovich, Institutional Real Estate Letter
Judges’ Comment on Gold Award: “This is a nicely designed, highly readable compilation of the week’s key stories in a variety of areas. The information is presented in a graphically pleasing format.”

Category 25: Best Web Site Solely Devoted to Residential, Commercial or Financial Real Estate and/or Home Design
Gold Award: Stuart Elliott, The Real Deal Magazine
Judges’ Comment on Gold Award: “This web site is easy to navigate, graphically pleasing to the eye, and contains useful and interesting material. It obviously has strong audience appeal.”