NYFWA seeks nominations for Impact Award for Distinguished Financial Journalism

The New York Financial Writers’ Association is accepting nominations for its 2020 Impact Award for Distinguished Financial Journalism. Launched last year, the award is an effort to honor a distinguished story or body of work by reporters whose work spurred impact during the previous calendar year, irrespective of when the story or stories were published. It is recognition for financial reporting that cast an early spotlight on important issues and spur impact.

Last year’s winners –the award’s inaugural honorees– were Carrick Mollenkamp and Mark Whitehouse. The pair were named the award’s first recipients for their 2008 coverage in in the Wall Street Journal of Libor –the London interbank offered rate, and how it was becoming an unreliable interest rate benchmark. The benchmark, set by borrowing rates submitted by banks, underpins everything from home mortgages to corporate loans.

If you know of a story, or series of stories, that you believes fits the criteria for this award –stories that have had a demonstrable impact on the world, whether by spurring investigations, changing laws or holding the powerful to account, please nominate those pieces and their writer/writers for this year’s award. Self-nominations are fine as well.

Nominations must be received by June 30, 2020 and can be submitted through the following link: https://www.nyfwa.org/impactaward

Judging Criteria

A panel of judges appointed by the NYFWA board will review and judge all entries. The entries will be judged based on the impact spurred by the reporting. The prior calendar year will be prioritized for purposes of gauging impact. Judges will have the discretion to consider stories whose impact occurred earlier, but more weight will be given to reporting that spurred impact more recently. Thus, for the 2020 Impact Award, judges will primarily be looking for examples of impact that occurred in 2019. Judges reserve the right to recommend to the board that no award be given if no entry merits the honor.

Eligibility Rules

We welcome your entry for this year’s Impact Award. The deadline for online submissions is June 30, 2020. Please make sure your entry abides by the following eligibility criteria:

• Any U.S.-based news organization, including foreign news organizations with bureaus in the U.S., are eligible to apply, regardless of medium or circulation size. Online, print, audio and television news outlets are all eligible. Collaborative projects among multiple outlets are eligible so long as at least one outlet is U.S.-based or has a U.S. editorial presence.
• Reporters, including freelancers, are welcome to nominate their own work or to have their editors nominate them on their behalf. Each news organization can have multiple entries, up to five total. Persons nominating their own work are limited to one entry each.
• Stories nominated for the award must feature reporting on a business or financial topic. Entries without a clear business or financial angle are not eligible.

Articles nominated for the award can be published anytime (no time restrictions apply). However, the impact spurred by the stories must have occurred within the prior calendar year or in the recent past. What does “in the recent past” mean? Stories that spurred impact more recently will be given more weight by the judges.