Sorkin named biz journalist of the year

TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE

Andrew Ross Sorkin, the chief mergers and acquisitions reporter for The New York Times, is Talking Biz News business journalist of the year for 2010.

Sorkin also oversees the Dealbook section of the Times business coverage, and he also authored “Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the FinancialSystem–and Themselves.”

“Andrew has helped make The Times’s Business Day section a must read for news about Wall Street,” said Larry Ingrassia, the business editor of the Times. “Whether it is scoops about m&a deals or commentary that sheds light on the news or his award-winning book about the financial meltdown that grew out of his New York Times reporting, Andrew has become one of the preeminent journalists chronicling the business world.”

His selection is based on an unscientific, subjective review by Talking Biz News. Sorkin beat out three other semifinalists: Gillian Tett of the Financial Times, who oversees its U.S. coverage; Bloomberg News columnist Michael Lewis, who wrote “The Big Short;” and Bloomberg Businessweek editor Josh Tyrangiel.

This past year “has proven to be a great narrative for business journalism as we begin to ‘reform’ — and I put that word in quotes on purpose — our financial system,” said Sorkin on Thursday. “I imagine the post-crisis story, plus the emerging TBTF problems in Europe — and our own municipalities — will provide great fodder for 2011.”

Although some criticize Sorkin for being too cozy to the Wall Street and investment banker sources that he covers, he is still one of the hardest-working business journalists in the country, and he is not afraid of criticizing business.

For example, his Jan. 11, 2010 column about the first hearing of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission suggested questions that should be asked of Wall Street CEOs. Sorkin wanted the CEO of Goldman Sachs to be asked about the collateralized debt obligations that lost money to most of the people who bought them from Goldman, and he wanted the CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase to be asked about the firm’s request for collateral from Lehman Brothers, which hastened its demise.

In his June 1 column, Sorkin took a similar strategy in attacking credit ratings and how they duped many investors. And on Aug. 31, he examined why Wall Streeters were walking away from their support of President Barack Obama. In addition to his weekly column, he wrote breaking news stories on the M&A beat.

And he has embraced new media delivery systems with more than 327,000 followers on Twitter. He also began producing short radio segments called “The Business Brief with Andrew Ross Sorkin” for the U.S. Radio Network beginning July 12.

Dealbook has undergone an expansion in the past year as well, adding staff and content in the printed Times during the week.

“The expansion of the DealBook online financial news site as part of Business Day is testament to his vision in embracing the Web as a way for newspapers to build new audiences,” added Ingrassia.

Sorkin thanked the Dealbook staff and executives at the Times for its success.

“I’m remarkably proud of the strong team of journalists, both editors and reporters, that we have been able to hire and assemble for the expanded DealBook,” he said in an e-mail on Thursday. “They are the ones who have made the new DealBook such a success. And, of course, everyone from Jill Abramson, the paper’s managing editor to Larry Ingrassia, the business editor, and the entire Bizday team, made this expansion happen. For that, I am tremendously grateful.”

His book won the 2010 Gerald Loeb Award for best business book of the year, was on the shortlist for the 2010 Samuel Johnson Prize, shortlisted for the 2010 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award, and was on The New York Times Best Seller list (business) for six months.

Sorkin is an assistant editor of business and finance news at the Times, helping guide and shape the paper’s coverage. He’s also been controversial this year, being spanked by Times columnist Paul Krugman for writing that Krugman advocated nationalizing banks.

Sorkin won a Gerald Loeb Award, the highest honor in business journalism, in 2004 for breaking news. He also won a Society of American Business Editors and Writers Award for breaking news in 2005 and again in 2006.

Sorkin began writing for The Times in 1995 under unusual circumstances: he was still in high school. He joined the Times in 1999 after graduating from Cornell University.