For the 31st consecutive year, the NYSSCPA honored reporters from the national and local press whose work contributed to a better and balanced understanding of business or financial topics through its Excellence in Financial Journalism Awards program.

The contest recognized reporters whose work was published, posted or broadcast in 2013. Winners in 11 categories were selected by members of the NYSSCPA and the New York Financial Writers Association (NYFWA), who judged submissions on accuracy, quality and thoroughness of research.

One of the Society’s premiere events, the journalism awards banquet was held on May 1 at the Tribeca Grill in downtown Manhattan, with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist James B. Stewart serving as keynote speaker. Stewart is a New York Times columnist and the Bloomberg Professor of Business Journalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

“I always tell my students that financial stories are human stories,” he said.

This year’s judges included Society members Scott M. Adair, Richard L. Hecht, Elliot L. Hendler, Richard Kravitz, Cynthia L. Krom, Joel Lanz, Allen M. Liebnick, Rumbidzai N. Bwerinofa Petrozzello, Lydia A. Trepelkova, George I. Victor, and Alan E. Weiner. Joseph M. Falbo Jr., who has been nominated to serve as the NYSSCPA’s 2014-15 president-elect, presented the awards.

NYFWA members who participated in the judging of nominations included Stephen Foley of the Financial Times, Leah Spiro of Riverside Creative Management, Richard Koreto of AccountingWEB and Terry Wooten, of Crosstie Media Services.

2014 Excellence in Financial Journalism Award Winners

Book:
Book – Business/Financial:
Gregory Zuckerman for  “The Frackers: The Outrageous Inside Story of the Billionaire Wildcatters” (Portfolio/Penguin) - In five years, the United States has seen a historic burst of oil and natural gas production, easing our insatiable hunger for energy. A new drilling process called fracking has made us the world’s fastest growing energy power, on track to pass Saudi Arabia by 2020. But despite headlines and controversy, no previous book has shown how the revolution really happened.
 
Print & Online:
Trade Press Category – News/Investigative:  David Evans, Bloomberg Markets, for “Fleeced by Fees.” Even as Wall Street has found countless ways to trick and profit excessively from its customers, the fees charged by managed futures funds are outrageous by all standards— and hidden.

Trade Press Category – Features: Janet Hewitt, Mortgage Banking, for "That Other American Dream” an in-depth look at the senior management and business strategy behind Ellie Mae, a unique company in the mortgage technology field that has found a way to be a success story in the face of epic headwinds.

Trade Press Category – Opinion: Kenneth Silber, Research, for “Who’s Kidding Whom?” a piece that focused on the risks of financial advisors "living in a bubble" and filtering out adverse information about public opinion and the political climate. 

Consumer Press Category – News/Investigative: Cam Simpson, Bloomberg Businessweek, for “Stranded”  which follows the incredible tale of 1,500 Nepalese men as they are recruited in their homeland by job brokers who charge fees for the service, then flown to Malaysia where they’ll work at a Flextronics plant assembling cameras for the new phone. Once there, they’re stranded when Apple moves assembly to another plant.

Consumer Press Category – Features:  Peter Elkind and Doris Burke, Fortune,for “Amazon’s (Not So Secret) War on Taxes,” where the pair reveal how Jeff  Bezos' company successfully battled to preserve his company online sales-tax exempt status by demanding, wheedling, suing, threatening, and negotiating—and how new alliances and strategies among Amazon's enemies finally began turning the tide.

Consumer Press Category – Opinion: Dan Primack, Fortune, for “Where is Calpers’s Governanace When You Need It?”, in Fortune, in this, one of his ongoing commentaries about private equity, venture capital, Wall Street, mergers and acquisitions, and other deal-related topics, Primack chides the corporate watchdog for its complicity in allowing a third-party “placement agent” to channel Calpers’s investments toward a private equity fund, all the while portraying itself as an unwitting victim.

Television:
Category – Segment Running 10 Minutes or Less: Richard Quest, CNN International - In the summer of 2013 Richard Quest travelled to Texas to investigate both the day-to-day work of fracking, and its long-term economic impact.

Category – Segment Running More than 10 Minutes: Scott Cohn, CNBC, for “Critical Condition: Saving America’s Cities,” the historic bankruptcy of the city of Detroit in 2013 was not an isolated incident. As this series shows, no major city is without at least some of the same issues that sent Detroit over the edge.

Radio:
Category – Segment Running 10 Minutes or Less:  Alisa Parenti with producer Tracy Johnke, Marketwatch.com Radio for “Housing on Fire: Tips for Buyers and Sellers” - As the housing market started to heat up again, Parenti and Johnke had a very simple goal: To help buyers and sellers maximize their positions in the finally-improving real estate market.

Category – Segment Running More than Ten Minutes: Gordon Deal, Wall Street Journal This Morning, 16-day segment series decoded the government shutdown’s impact on real people, the economy and business.