NYSSCPA names financial journalism award winners

The New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants announced Monday the winners of its 2013 Excellence in Financial Journalism Awards.

The award recognizes reporters from the national and local press whose work was published or broadcast in 2012 and contributed to a better and balanced understanding of business or financial topics. Winners were selected by judges from the NYSSCPA and the New York Financial Writers Association who ranked submissions on accuracy, quality and thoroughness of research.

This year’s winners will be honored during a luncheon ceremony April 30 in New York City.

Book
Book – Business/Financial: Kirsten Grind, for “The Lost Bank: The Story of Washington Mutual – The Biggest Bank Failure in American History” (Simon & Schuster), an intimate account of not only how one bank lost itself to greed and mismanagement, but how the entire financial industry and even the entire country lost its way as well.

Print & Online:
Trade Press Category – News/Investigative: David Kaplan, Fortune, for “Hostess Is Bankrupt…Again,” an investigative and analytical tour de force explaining the death of an American consumer icon.

Trade Press Category – Features: Roger Parloff, Fortune, for “The All-American Con Man”; the thoroughly, untangled story of Barry Minkow, a colorful insider trader and swindler who has spent a lifetime deceiving everyone.

Trade Press Category – Opinion: Rob Cox and Robert Cyran, Reuters Breakingviews, for “HP breakup is on tech world’s 2013 agenda,” these journalists succinctly argue how turning around the troubled technology company will take too long; and how breaking up HP would be quicker and double its value.

Consumer Press Category – News/Investigative: David Evans, Bloomberg News, for Duping the Donors; an in-depth series investigating how major charities instruct telemarketers to lie about how donations are used; and how other non-profits that are not charities make hundreds of millions of dollars tax free.

Consumer Press Category – Features: David Voreacos, Bloomberg News, for Inside Insider Trading; after studying every U.S. insider trader case over the past five years, Voreacos takes readers on an unprecedented two-story tour into the world of insider traders.

Consumer Press Category – Opinion: Susan Antilla, Bloomberg View, Wall Street wins, the public loses, was the compilation of three monthly-opinion columns that exposed readers to fraud, illegal arbitration and malicious practices by some in the finance industry; disclosures many investors may have otherwise been unaware of.

Television:
Category – Segment Running 10 Minutes or Less: None

Category – Segment Running More than 10 Minutes: Brian Ross, Rhonda Schwartz, Matthew Mosk and Megan Chuchmach, ABC News, The Money Trail 2012; the network’s investigative news team focused on the influence of big money in American politics and exposed the details of the hidden wealth of donors and candidates.

Radio:
Category – Segment Running 10 Minutes or Less: Carol Zimmer, Mark Mills, and Al Mayers, Bloomberg Radio, “Space Exploration Goes Private,” the report highlights the changing landscape for NASA and space travel in the 21st Century.

Category – Segment Running More than Ten Minutes: Carol Zimmer, Mark Mills, and Al Mayers, Bloomberg Radio, “Postponement Generation Grows Up,” a two-part series on how the economic recession has affected recent college graduates.