Bloomberg, WSJ win National Press Club awards

The winners of the National Press Foundation’s annual awards include two entries from business journalist outlets.

There were two equal winners of NPF’s own Feddie Award, showing the impact of federal rules and regulations outside the Beltway. One winner was Bloomberg reporters Mark Drajem and Jack Kaskey who showed the consequences in West, Texas, when there was little federal oversight of toxic chemical storage at a manufacturing plant, but also little industry compliance with federal safety rules, resulting in a chemical explosion that killed 14 people.

The one-time only “Shutdown Feddie” award will go to The Wall Street Journal for a comprehensive look at the federal shutdown’s local impact, from declining customers at a tourism business in the Great Smoky Mountains to an Oregon company’s inability to get needed FCC approvals.

The winners will be honored at a dinner on March 5. All of the winners can be found here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.