2018 Best in Business Contest Winners and Honorees

Congratulations to the 2018 Best in Business award winners! Many thanks to our 205 member judges for their time and thoughtfulness in reviewing entries and meeting to select honorees.

Audio; All News Organizations

Winner – Indianapolis Business Journal: The IBJ podcast
Contributors – Mason King, Lesley Weidenbener

Honorable Mention – The Wall Street Journal: The next battlefield
Contributors – Jennifer Strong, Robert McMillan, Steven Rosenbush, Garrett Crowe, Kristin Schwab, Anthony Green, John Wordock, Jacob Gorski

Banking/Finance; Large

Winner – Bloomberg: Sign here to lose everything
Contributors – Zachary Mider, Zeke Faux, David Ingold, Demetrios Pogkas

Honorable Mention – Los Angeles Times: The hidden costs of high-interest rate installment lending
Contributors – James Rufus Koren, Andrew Khouri

Banking/Finance; Medium

Winner – The Charlotte Observer: Wells Fargo’s controversies continue
Contributors – Deon Roberts, Bruce Henderson, Adam Bell

Banking/Finance; Small

Winner – American Banker: Bank CEO’s fire-and-rehire maneuver reaps windfall at taxpayer expense
Contributors – Kevin Wack, Alan Kline

Honorable Mention – Sacramento Business Journal: After a decade, banks returning to Sacramento
Contributor – Mark Anderson

Honorable Mention – Financial Planning: Keep quiet
Contributors – Ann Marsh, Scott Wenger

Breaking News; Large

Winner – Los Angeles Times: Toyota held accountable for a defect in its Prius
Contributor – Ralph Vartabedian

Breaking News; Medium

Winner – Forbes.com: The inside story of Papa John’s toxic culture
Contributor – Noah Kirsch

Honorable Mention – Bloomberg Law: Ben Penn tip sharing rule
Contributor – Ben Penn

Breaking News; Small

Winner – American Banker: Comerica scrambles to address fraud in prepaid benefits program
Contributor – Kate Berry, Joe Adler

Honorable Mention – Nashville Business Journal: AllianceBernstein’s move to Nashville
Contributor – Adam Sichko

Commentary/Opinion; Large

Winner – Financial Times: Tech and policies
Contributor – Rana Foroohar

Commentary/Opinion; Medium

Winner – The Detroit News: Daniel Howes opinion/commentary
Contributor – Daniel Howes

Honorable Mention – The Boston Globe: Shirley Leung opinion/commentary
Contributor – Shirley Leung

Commentary/Opinion; Small

Winner – Fast Company: Rick Wartzman opinion/commentary
Contributor – Rick Wartzman

Honorable Mention – STAT: Adam Feuerstein biotech industry commentary
Contributor – Adam Feuerstein

Honorable Mention – Crain’s Chicago Business: 2018 editorial board
Contributor – Ann Dwyer

Economics; Large

Winner – The New York Times: The trade equation
Contributors – Nelson Schwartz, Jim Tankersley, Natalie Kitroeff

Economics; Medium

Winner – Mother Jones: Frozen assets
Contributor – Katia Savchuk

Honorable Mention – Quartz: Remaking economics series
Contributor– Eshe Nelson

Economics; Small

Winner – Indianapolis Business Journal: One city, worlds apart
Contributors – Hayleigh Colombo, Jill Doyle

Energy/Natural Resources; Large

Winner – Reuters: Ocean shock
Contributor – Maurice Tamman

Honorable Mention – A collaboration of The Center for Public Integrity, The Texas Tribune, The Associated Press and Newsy: Blowout
Contributor – Jim Morris

Energy/Natural Resources; Medium

Winner – CNN: Dirty energy
Contributors – Nima Elbagir, Dominique van Heerden, Eliza Mackintosh

Honorable Mention – The Dallas Morning News: Atmos Energy
Contributors – Holly Hacker, Cary Aspinwall, Allan Vestal

Energy/Natural Resources; Small

Winner – Providence Business News: Rising waters
Contributor – Eli Sherman

Honorable Mention – Debtwire: Appalachia’s coal comeback collides with grim opioid reality
Contributors – Kyle Younker, Taylor Harrison

Explanatory; Large

Winner – Reuters: Ocean shock
Contributors – Maurice Tamman, Matthew Green, Mari Saito, Sarah Slobin, Maryanne Murray

Honorable Mention – Bloomberg: Immigration, Inc.
Contributors – Lauren Etter, Michael Smith, Monte Reel

Honorable Mention – The New York Times: Pregnancy discrimination
Contributors – Natalie Kitroeff, Jessica Silver-Greenberg

Explanatory; Medium

Winner – Fortune: What the hell happened at GE?
Contributor – Geoff Colvin

Honorable Mention – Houston Chronicle: The miracle molecule
Contributor – Jordan Blum

Honorable Mention – Minneapolis Star Tribune: Aging parents, stressed families
Contributor – Jackie Crosby

Explanatory; Small

Winner – InsideClimate News: Harvesting peril
Contributors – Georgina Gustin, Neela Banerjee, John H. Cushman Jr., Paul Horn, Anna Belle Peevey

Winner – Project on Government Oversight: Drilling down series
Contributors – David Hilzenrath, Nicholas Pacifico

Honorable Mention – The Desert Sun: Poisoned cities, deadly border
Contributor – Ian James, Zoë Meyers

Honorable Mention – McClatchy DC Bureau: Ancestry DNA: Privacy for sale
Contributor – Stuart Leavenworth

Feature; Large

Winner – The New York Times: The itsy-bitsy, teenie-weenie, very litigious bikini
Contributor – Katherine Rosman

Honorable Mention – Businessweek: Two Towns Forged an Unlikely Bond. Now, ICE Is Severing the Connection
Contributor – Monte Reel

Feature; Medium

Winner – Minneapolis Star Tribune: Legal war engulfs 3M device
Contributor – Joe Carlson

Honorable Mention – Forbes.com: Wilbur Ross series
Contributor – Dan Alexander

Feature; Small

Winner – Nashville Business Journal: Mapping the new Nashville
Contributor – Eleanor Kennedy

Honorable Mention – The New Food Economy: Kansas is dying
Contributor – Corie Brown

Honorable Mention – Debtwire Investigations: How Burger King fed storm-ravaged Puerto Rico, and made a killing
Contributors – Seth Brumby, Javier Balmaceda, Xavira Neggers Crescioni

General Excellence; Industry/Topic-Specific Publications

Winner – American Banker
Contributors – Editorial Staff

General Excellence; Large

Winner – Financial Times
Contributors – Arash Massoudi, James Fontanella-Khan, Madison Marriage, Steven Bernard, Sujeet Indap, Amy Kazmin

General Excellence; Medium

Winner – The Dallas Morning News
Contributor – The Dallas Morning News staff

Honorable Mention – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Contributor – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

General Excellence; Small

Winner – Nashville Business Journal
Contributor – Lori Becker

Honorable Mention – Triangle Business Journal
Contributor – Lauren Ohnesorge, Ben Graham, Cameron Snipes, Dane Huffman, Dathan Kazsuk

Government; Large

Winner – Reuters: Ambushed at home
Contributors – Joshua Schneyer, Michael Pell, Andrea Januta, Deborah Nelson

Government; Medium

Winner – Politico: Investigation of Ryan Zinke
Contributors – Ben Lefebvre, Nick Juliano

Honorable Mention – The Plain Dealer: Do wage theft laws in Ohio harm or help workers?
Contributor – Olivera Perkin

Government; Small

Winner – InsideClimate News: Dangers without borders
Contributor – Neela Banerjee, Sabrina Shankman, Nicholas Kusnetz, Paul Horn and Anna Belle Peevey

Honorable Mention – Capital & Main: Battery blood: How California health agencies failed Exide workers
Contributor – Joe Rubi

Honorable Mention – New Haven Independent: ‘Scoops & tosses’ $160M in old debt
Contributor – Christopher Peak

Health/Science; Large

Winner – A collaboration of ICIJ, NBC News Investigative Unit, The Associated Press and partners: The implant files
Contributor – Reporting & Data Teams

Honorable Mention – Financial Times: Opioid crisis and the Sackler family
Contributor – David Crow

Health/Science; Medium

Winner – ProPublica: Health Insurance Hustle
Contributor – Marshall Allen

Honorable Mention – ProPublica: Black Patients Miss Out On Promising Cancer Drugs
Contributors – Caroline Chen and Riley Wong

Health/Science; Small

Winner – Kaiser Health News: Drug price shenanigans
Contributors – Jay Hancock, Sarah Jane Tribble, Emily Kopp, Sydney Lupkin, Elizabeth Lucas

Honorable Mention – InsideClimate News: Surrounded by oil fields, an Alaska village fears for its health
Contributor – Sabrina Shankman

Innovation; Large

Winner – The New York Times: Visual narratives
Contributors – Nicholas Confessore, Gabriel Dance, Richard Harris, Mark Hansen, Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, Natasha Singer, Michael Keller, Aaron Krolik, Matthew Goldstein, Robert Gebeloff, Ross Mantle, Matt Ruby

Innovation; Medium

Winner – GateHouse Media: Failure to deliver
Contributors – Emily Le Coz, Josh Salman, Lucille Sherman, Tony Elkins, Mara Corbett, Tyson Bird, Jennifer Borresen

Innovation; Small

Honorable Mention – Crain’s Chicago Business: Chicago’s opioid crisis series
Contributors – Kristen Schorsch, Manuel Martinez, Jason McGregor, Cassie Walker Burke

International Reporting; Large

Winner – The Associated Press: China’s internment camps
Contributors – Dake Kang, Martha Mendoza, Yanan Wang

Honorable Mention – Businessweek: Brexit’s big short
Contributors – Cam Simpson, Gavin Finch, Kit Chellel

International Reporting; Medium

Winner – A collaboration of ProPublica and Time Magazine: Unprotected
Contributors – Finlay Young, Kathleen Flynn

International Reporting; Small

Winner – A collaboration of ICIJ, Norbert Zongo Cell for Investigative Journalism in West Africa (CENOZO) and 11 media partners from West Africa: West Africa Leaks

Investigative; Large

Winner – The Wall Street Journal: The fall of Steve Wynn
Contributors – Alexandra Berzon, Chris Kirkham, Elizabeth Bernstein, Kate O’Keeffe

Honorable Mention – The New York Times and The Guardian/The Observer of London: Facebook, disinformation and privacy
Contributors – New York Times staff with contributions from Carole Cadwalladr for The Guardian/The Observer of London, Matthew Rosenberg, Nicholas Confessore, Paul Mozur, Sheera Frenkel, Cecilia Kang and Jack Nicas

Investigative; Medium

Winner – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bad medicine
Contributor – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Winner – The Dallas Morning News: Pain & profit
Contributor – J. David McSwane and Andrew Chavez

Honorable Mention – Forbes.com: Wilbur Ross series
Contributor– Dan Alexander

Investigative; Small

Winner – A collaboration of The New Republic and The Investigative Fund: Political corruption and the art of the deal

Contributor – Anjali Kamat
Honorable Mention – A collaboration of The Intercept and The Investigative Fund: FINRA’s black hole
Contributor – Susan Antilla

Honorable Mention – A collaboration of ProPublica Illinois and WBEZ: Driven into debt
Contributors – Melissa Sanchez, Elliott Ramos, David Eads, Sandhya Kambhampati and WBEZ

Markets; Large

Winner – The New York Times: Explaining the financial markets
Contributors – Matt Phillips, Peter Eavis

Markets; Medium

Winner – Bloomberg Law: SEC Wall Street cops see staff drop since Trump election
Contributors – Andrew Ramonas, Jennifer Bennett

Markets; Small

Winner – RTO Insider: The GreenHat Energy story: Doubling down — with other people’s money
Contributor – Rory Sweeney

Media/Entertainment; Large

Winner – The New York Times: Moonves and CBS exposed
Contributors – Rachel Abrams, James B. Stewart, Ellen Gabler, Edmund Lee, John Koblin

Media/Entertainment; Medium

Winner – Fortune: Tronc chairman sexual harassment
Contributors – Kristen Bellstrom, Beth Kowitt

Media/Entertainment; Small

Winner – The Center for Public Integrity: The NBA and MLB quietly hustle for a cut of the sports betting jackpot
Contributor – Rui Kaneya

Newsletter; Large

Winner – Financial Times: Due Diligence
Contributors – James Fontanella-Khan, Arash Massoudi, Sujeet Indap, Mark Vandevelde, Eric Platt, Javier Espinoza, Don Weinland, Jennifer Bissell-Linsk, Neil Munshi and Lindsay Fortado

Newsletter; Medium

Winner – Barron’s: Review & Preview
Contributors – Alex Eule, Nicholas Jasinski

Newsletter; Small

Winner – Communications Daily on 911
Contributor – Adam Bender

Personal Finance; Large

Winner – Financial Times: Click to donate
Contributor – Barney Jopson

Personal Finance; Medium

Winner – The Chronicle of Higher Education: Drew Cloud is a well-known expert on student loans. One problem: He isn’t real.
Contributors – Chris Quintana, Dan Bauman

Personal Finance; Small

Winner – The Marshall Project: Petty charges, princely profit
Contributor – Joseph Neff

Honorable Mention – McClatchy DC Bureau: Non-bank lending targets weakest borrowers
Contributors – Kevin G. Hall, Mike Woodel, Laura Corley, Ben Wieder, Paul Hampton

Real Estate; Large

Winner – The New York Times: Trump taxes
Contributors – David Barstow, Susanne Craig, Russ Buettner

Real Estate; Medium

Winner – The Globe and Mail: Inside the fall of Fortress
Contributor – Janet McFarland

Honorable Mention – Houston Chronicle: Real estate in the aftermath of Harvey
Contributors – Nancy Sarnoff, Mark Collette, David Hunn, Matt Dempsey

Real Estate; Small

Winner – Nashville Business Journal: Project Stella and Why Tony Giarratana gets a Metro park (and you don’t)
Contributors – Adam Sichko, Meg Garner

Honorable Mention – Realtor.com: Life in the flood zone
Contributor – Clare Trapasso

Retail; Large

Winner – The New York Times: The human side of the retail shakeout
Contributors – Michael Corkery, Nelson D. Schwartz

Retail; Medium

Winner – Fortune: Michelle Gass is cracking the code at Kohl’s
Contributor – Phil Wahba

Honorable Mention – Chicago Tribune: Sears’ demise
Contributor – Lauren Zumbach

Retail; Small

Winner – Capital & Main: The ‘Amazon Tax’ Ruling: Disrupting the Disruptors?
Contributor– David Dayen

Honorable Mention – The New Food Economy: Foreign beef can legally be labeled “Product of U.S.A.”
Contributor– Joe Fassler

Small Business/Management/Career; Large

Winner – The Wall Street Journal: Burned out
Contributors – Thomas Gryta, Ted Mann

Honorable Mention – Bloomberg: In Trump’s America, bosses are accused of weaponizing the ICE crackdown
Contributors – Kartikay Mehrotra, Peter Waldman, Jonathan Levin

Small Business/Management/Career; Medium

Winner – Fortune: Second to none, but still number two
Contributor – Leigh Gallagher

Small Business/Management/Career; Small

Winner – McClatchy DC Bureau: Merchant cash death spiral
Contributor – Ben Wieder

Student Journalism; Projects and Collaborations

Winner – Baruch College, City University of New York (CUNY) and Dollars & Sense of Maine
Contributors – Caroline Leddy, Victoria Merlino, Anne Ehart, Andre Beganski, Anderson Calderon, Bruce Dent, Polina Fishof, Edgar Llivisupa, Rommel Ojeda, Jonathan Sperling, Phoebe Taylor-Vuolo

Student Journalism; Stories Written for Professional Publications

Winner – Washington and Lee University published in the Tampa Bay Times: SunPass investigation
Contributors – Hannah Denham, Washington and Lee University

Honorable Mention – UNC Chapel Hill published in the Triangle Business Journal: Where every penny is earned
Contributor – Ryan Haar, UNC Chapel Hill

Student Journalism; Stories produced for Student News Organizations

Winner – Cronkite News by ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication: Hurricane provides opportunity for Puerto Rico’s battered tourism industry
Contributor – Cronkite News is the news division of Arizona PBS. The daily news products are produced by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at ASU. Contributor – Andres Guerra Luz, Arizona State University

Technology; Large

Winner – The Wall Street Journal: Elon Musk
Contributors –Tim Higgins, Susan Pulliam, Liz Hoffman, Tripp Mickle, Rolfe Winkler

Technology; Medium

Winner – Politico: The least connected people in America
Contributor – Margaret Harding McGill

Honorable Mention – Forbes: WhatsApp
Contributor – Parmy Olson

Technology; Small

Winner – The Weekly Standard: Telemarketers, ahoy
Contributor – Tony Mecia

Honorable Mention – The New Food Economy: Silicon Valley wants to give us eggs without chickens. Do we want that?
Contributor – Joe Fassler

Travel/Transportation; Large

Winner – The Wall Street Journal: The middle seat
Contributor – Scott McCartney

Travel/Transportation; Medium

Winner CNN Business: Uber sexual assault investigation
Contributors – Sara Ashley O’Brien, Nelli Black, Curt Devine, Drew Griffin

Honorable Mention – The Seattle Times: Stolen Horizon passenger jet crashes outside Seattle
Contributors – Matt Day, Evan Bush, Hal Bernton, Lewis Kamb, Christine Clarridge, Daniel Beekman, Argueda Pacheco-Flores, Ellen Banner

Travel/Transportation; Small

Winner – The Information: The self-driving car industry
Contributor – Amir Efrati

Video; Large

Winner – Bloomberg: The drone delivery operator in Rwanda
Contributors – Aki Ito, Gloria Kurnik, Leila Hussain, Alan Jeffries, Victoria Blackburne-Daniell, David Nicholson

Honorable Mention – Financial Times: Argentina: A life of boom and bust
Contributors – Benedict Mander, Vanessa Kortekaas, Ben Marino

Video; Medium and Small

Winner – The Story Exchange: A Sandy Hook mom’s nonprofit hopes to stop school shootings
Contributors– Victoria Wang, Sue Williams, Christina Kelly, Jerry Risius, Noel Flego, Colleen DeBaise

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