New York Times wins three Loebs; Sloan wins his seventh

The New York Times on Monday received three Loeb Awards, considered the Pulitzer Prices in business journalism, while Fortune magazine’s Allan Sloan won his seventh Loeb Award.

Sloan won in the commentary category for a column called “Piece of Junk.”

The judges stated, “Of the countless stories about the subprime crisis, this piece stood out among the rest in depth of reporting and quality of writing. By dissecting one subprime mortgage deal, Sloan said volumes in relatively few words about what happened and why. The story turned a spotlight on the underlying conflict on Wall Street, as firms sold questionable subprime debt to investors even as they were profiting by shorting similar investments.”

The Times won in the large newspaper category for its “Toxic Pipeline” series that detailed how dangerous pharmaceutical ingredients have flowed into the global market. The series also won a Pulitzer.

Times columnist Joe Nocera won in the commentary category, while the Times also won in the breaking news category for its coverage of ousted Merrill Lynch CEO Stan O’Neal.

Other winners included the Charlotte Observer for a series of stories on Beazer Homes and the subprime mortgage crisis, and the Charleston Post & Courier in South Carolina for stories on how China is affecting the local economy.

A group of four Wall Street Journal reporters won in the best writing category for coverage of the failure of Bear Stearns, while Bloomberg News won in the news service category for coverage of the subprime securities market.

Charles Fishman of Fast Company — who also won a Loeb Award in 2005 and 2007 — won in the feature writing category, while MSN Money won in the online news category. And PBS’ “Nightly Business Report” won in the daily television category for its coverage of India.

See all of the winners here. They were announced at a dinner in New York on Monday night.