Three biz journalists to be honored at SABEW’s 50th anniversary

Three business journalists, including a founding member, will be honored with SABEW President’s Awards at the 50^th annual spring conference of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers in Washington, D.C., April 4-6.

Founding member Gene Miller, of Boca Raton, Fla., will be joined by Myron Kandel and Martha Steffens.  Kandel, of New York City, is SABEW’s only two-time president.  He initiated business coverage at CNN.  Steffens has held the SABEW chair position at the University of Missouri for the last 11 years.

“These are three giant figures in business journalism,” said Warren Watson, executive director of SABEW.   “The three have served the business journalism community for more than 160 years.”

The awards will be presented at a special gala on Saturday night at the Mayflower Renaissance Hotel, capping a three-day conference featuring business and government keynoters and dozens of other workshops and sessions.  George Washington University’s Marvin Center will be the headquarters for the conference. Speakers over three days include Mad Money’s Jim Cramer, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, the Fed’s Janet Yellen and economist David Stockman.

Miller helped to organize SABEW’s first conference in New York City 50 years ago, initiating SABEW’s signature education event, a tradition that continues every spring.  He enjoyed a long career in journalism and other fields, and today still teaches as an adjunct at Florida Atlantic University in Miami.

Miller served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and was a speechwriter for President Eisenhower, who was running for re-election in 1956. He has been director of 12 companies and been in leadership positions at McGraw Hill, Inc., the New York Stock Exchange, CNA Financial Corporation and the USG Corporation.

Miller’s journalism career began as a reporter, and later editor, of the Greensboro Daily News (N.C.). He also worked for Business Week magazine and Newsday in New York. He has written and edited many books, including the Barron’s Guide to Graduate Business Schools. He was business editor of NBC’s Today Show during Dave Garroway’s tenure as host.

Kandel was once named one of the 10 most influential financial journalists of the 20^th century, a fitting accolade for the television-news pioneer and CNN’s founding business and financial editor.

Before his decades-long tenure at CNN, Kandel served as the financial editor of three newspapers – the Washington Star, the New York Herald Tribune and the New York Post – and a reporter for the New York Times, foreign correspondent for the Herald Tribune, syndicated columnist and editor of the New York Law Journal.

Kandel joined SABEW in its second year and holds the distinction of being its only two-time president – in 1976 and 1996.

Steffens enjoyed a long journalism career in various roles, including top editor, before she was named to the SABEW in business and financial journalism chair in 2002.

In her role, she teaches business and financial journalism, as well as organizing seminars for business journalism professionals. Steffens has taught hundreds of workshops over the years, and lectured in Russia, the Czech Republic, Norway, Jamaica and Italy, among other countries.

Before Missouri, she enjoyed a 30-year career in newspapers, including executive editor of the San Francisco Examiner, and earlier the Press & Sun Bulletin in Binghamton, N.Y.