The Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing (SABEW) announced Monday the results of its 25th annual Best in Business competition, which recognizes outstanding business journalism of 2019.
Panels of judges selected 69 winners and 68 honorable mentions out of 1,082 entries. Submissions came from 183 news organizations across all platforms representing the breadth of business journalism, from international, national and regional news outlets to specialized business publications.
View the complete list of 2019 BIB honorees and read the judges’ comments.
Highlights of the winners include:
• The Wall Street Journal, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Portland Business Journal and Financial Planning earned general excellence top honors. Honorable mentions went to the Detroit Free Press and American Banker.
• Overall, The Wall Street Journal took home the most honors, including eight winners (one a collaborative effort with Gimlet Media) and five honorable mentions.
• The Los Angeles Times had four top-place awards, in addition to one honorable mention. Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Businessweek had seven honors (one winner and six honorable mentions), and The New York Times had six honors (two winners and four honorable mentions). Reuters won three top awards and two honorable mentions.
• Multiple winners in the medium size newsroom include Kaiser Health News (five wins and two honorable mentions), ProPublica (three wins — one a collaboration with BuzzFeed News — and three honorable mentions — one a collaboration with American Banker) and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (three wins and one honorable mention). Fortune magazine garnered two wins and one honorable mention, and The Seattle Times also had two wins.
• Two-time winners in the smaller newsrooms include Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, the Portland Business Journal, Crain’s Chicago Business and The Counter.
• The contest reflected the growing trend of newsroom collaboration. Five collaborative projects won, and four partnerships received honorable mentions. ProPublica, The Center for Public Integrity and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists partnered on more than one honored project.
• ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication swept the two student categories with a win and honorable mention for student journalism published in The Arizona Republic. ASU’s Cronkite News also won in the Stories for Student Media Outlets category.
“Congratulations to the winners of this year’s contest, which was incredibly competitive,” said Joanna Ossinger, chair of the BIB Awards and markets editor at Bloomberg News. “It’s a reminder just how much great business journalism is being done through all sizes and types of news organizations.”
The awards were scheduled to be given out at a celebration at the SABEW20 Toronto conference April 30 and May 1. Due to the coronavirus restrictions on gatherings and travel, SABEW is working on alternative plans to honor the winners.
SABEW is the world’s largest and oldest organization of business and financial journalists. It launched the Best in Business competition in 1995 to recognize excellence in the industry. SABEW Canada’s BIB winners will be announced next month.
