The Society of American Business Editors and Writers has named the winners in its 12th annual Best in Business contest, which recognizes the best sections or publications, as well as the best breaking news, enterprise and projects reporting in business journalism during 2006. Winners share the award equally, without ranking, in the respective categories.

The contest received 761 entries from daily and weekly newspapers, magazines, wire services, and Web sites.

SABEW started the Best in Business contest in 1995 to help set standards and recognize role models for outstanding business journalism.

Awards will be presented Sunday, May 20, in Anaheim during SABEW's 44th annual conference. The judges’ comments about the winners will be posted soon on www.sabew.org. Additional information about the conference and SABEW is available at that site as well.

The Best in Business winners

(in alphabetical order, by publication, for each contest and size category)

Overall excellence, sections or publications

Giant newspapers (average daily circulation 375,001 and above)

The New York Times
The Star-Ledger (Newark, N.J.)
USA Today
Certificates of merit: The Arizona Republic, Houston Chronicle

Large newspapers (circulation from 250,001 to 375,000)

Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
San Jose Mercury News

Medium newspapers (circulation from 125,001 to 250,000)

Des Moines Register
Detroit News
The Hartford Courant
The Seattle Times
South Florida SunSentinel
Certificates of merit: Salt Lake Tribune, St. Paul Pioneer Press and The Tennessean (Nashville)

Small newspapers (circulation 125,000 and below)

Florida Today (Melbourne, Fla.)
The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, Calif.)
The Roanoke Times (Roanoke, Va.)
Certificate of merit: The Post and Courier (Charleston, S.C.)

Weekly Business newspapers

Advertising Age
Baltimore Business Journal
Business First of Louisville
Crain’s Chicago Business
Certificates of merit: Boston Business Journal, Puget Sound Business Journal, Street and Smith’s Sports Business Journal

Breaking News coverage

Giant newspapers

Stephen Heuser, Robert Gavin, Steven Syre, Jeffrey Krasner, Erica Noonan, Emily Shartin and Bennie DiNardo of The Boston Globe: “Boston Scientific's acquisition of Guidant”

Greg Burns, David Greising, Susan Chandler, Susan Diesenhouse and Julie Johnsson of the Chicago Tribune: “Board of Trade-Mercantile Exchange merger”

Andrew Ross Sorkin, Matt Richtel, Miguel Helft and John Markoff of The New York Times: “Google's YouTube deal”

Large newspapers

Bruce Finley, Tom McGhee, Christine Tatum, Kieran Nicholson, Greg Griffin, Kristi Arellano, David Migoya and Christopher Osher of The Denver Post for "Raids at Swift plants”

Mike Ellis, John Gallagher, Ron Dzwonkowski, Jennifer Dixon, Susan Tompor and Margarita Bauza of the Detroit Free Press: "GM Alliance: “Power play shakes Motor City”

Therese Poletti, Sarah Jane Tribble, Howard Mintz, Scott Duke Harris, Michelle Quinn, Mike Langberg, Michele Chandler, Donna Alvarado, Maria Shao and Kevin Wendt of the San Jose Mercury News: "Inside the HP privacy drama”

Medium newspapers

Steve Harrison, Rick Rothacker, Andrew Shain, Mike Drummond, Ames Alexander, Stella M. Hopkins, Christopher Kirkpatrick and Tony Mecia of The Charlotte Observer: “Creditors, feds key to air takeover bid”

Bill Vlasic, Daniel Howes, Bryce G. Hoffman, Christine Tierney, Sharon Terlep and Louis Aguilar of the Detroit News: “Blue Friday”

Bill Vlasic, Daniel Howes, Bryce G. Hoffman, Christine Tierney, Josee Valcourt and Sharon Terlep of the Detroit News: “New Ford CEO”

Small newspapers

Kathy Jumper, Andy Netzel and Mark Inabinett of the Mobile Press-Register: “Prichard wins”

Kurt Blumenau and Sam Kennedy of The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa..): “Agere bought out”

Jerry Siebenmark and Bill Wilson of The Wichita Eagle: “Beechcraft is back”

Weekly newspapers

Claire Atkinson, Brooke Capps, Matthew Creamer, Alice Z. Cuneo, Mya Frazier, Bob Garfield, Jeremy Mullman, Jack Neff and Lisa Sanders of Advertising Age: "Julie and the scandal that rocked the ad world”

Christine Perez of the Dallas Business Journal: "HUD secretary's blunt warning”

Real-time news organizations

Bill Koenig, Rachel Layne, John Lippert, James Gunsalus, Peter Robison and Gillian Wee of Bloomberg News: "Bill Ford makes way for Mulally"

Enterprise

Giant newspapers

Carrie Teegardin and Ann Hardie of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Insurance injustice -- when credit matters”

Louis Uchitelle of The New York Times: "Very rich are leaving the merely rich behind”

Tom Belden and Craig R.McCoy of The Philadelphia Inquirer: "Baggage bungling”

Large newspapers

Eric Gorksi of The Denver Post, “The Gospel of prosperity”

Joe Rojas-Burke of The Oregonian, “Millions for rural health miss mark”

Medium newspapers

Robert Elder of the Austin American-Statesman: “Pension fund scheme”

Binyamin Appelbaum of The Charlotte Observer: “Suspicious timing”

Jeremiah McWilliams of The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.): “Life after Ford”

Small newspapers

Brady McCombs of the Arizona Daily Star (Tucson): “Squeezing border business”

Debbie Kelley of The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.): “Money Enthusiast group has troubles with money”

Scott Sloan of the Lexington Herald-Leader: “Inklings of change”

Weekly newspapers

Matthew Kish of the Indianapolis Business Journal: "The ties that blind?”

Matthew Quinn of Financial Week: "Inside Google's $10 billion stash”

Real-time news organizations

Laura Bruce of Bankrate: "Suspicious activity reports”

Steven D. Jones of Dow Jones News Service: "In the money: Wrigley bulks up takeover defenses”

Christine Richard of Bloomberg News: "MBIA debt backed by crack houses Perpetuates Blight"

Projects

Giant newspapers

Stephen Franklin and Darnell Little of the Chicago Tribune: “Throwaway workers”

Edmund L. Andrews of The New York Times: “Leaky oil royalties”

Charles Forelle, James Bandler, Mark Maremont and Steve Stecklow of The Wall Street Journal: “Perfect payday”

Large newspapers

David Olinger, Greg Griffin, Aldo Svaldi and Jeffrey Roberts of The Denver Post: “Foreclosing on the American dream”

Steve Everly of The Kansas City Star: “It’s hot fuel for you, cold cash for big oil”

Sam Stanton and Marjie Lundstrom of The Sacramento Bee: “The price of access”

Medium newspapers

Stella M. Hopkins, Mitch Weiss, Binyamin Appelbaum, Rick Rothacker, Franco Ordonez, Liz Chandler, Tim Funk and Peter St. Onge of The Charlotte Observer: “Hiding in plain sight”

Kristi Heim, Alwyn Scott, and Alan Berner of The Seattle Times: “Customer and competitor”

Shannon Behnken of The Tampa Tribune: “A rapid rise”

Small newspapers

Michael J. Benbow of The Herald (Everett, Wash.): “Our fading fleet”

Bryan Corliss of The Herald (Everett, Wash.): “Worldwide assembly line”

Carol Ann Coultas of the Sun Journal (Lewiston, Maine): “Seeing green”

Weekly newspapers

Thomas Mucha, Mark Scheffler, Erik Unger and Melissa Phee of Crain’s Chicago Business: “Doing business in China: Enter the dragon”

Steve Wilhelm of Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle): “Bold flight: Creating the Boeing 787”

Susan Stabley of the South Florida Business Journal: “Water woes”

Real-time news organizations

Martin Z. Braun, David Dietz, William Selway, Christine Richard and Darrell Preston of Bloomberg News: “Duping Main Street”

Michael Smith and David Voreacos of Bloomberg News: “Slaves in Amazon forced to make materials used in GM, Toyota Cars”

Lingling Wei of Dow Jones News Service, “Mortgage finance”

Columns

Giant newspapers

Steve Bailey of The Boston Globe
Gretchen Morgenson of The New York Times
Alan Murray of The Wall Street Journal

Large newspapers

Sheryl Harris of the Cleveland Plain Dealer
Al Lewis of The Denver Post
Mitchell Schnurman of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Medium newspapers

Dave Elbert of the Des Moines Register
David Hendricks of the San Antonio Express-News
Brier Dudley of The Seattle Times

Small newspapers

Susan Miller of the Ledger-Enquirer (Columbus, Ga.)
Dan Voelpel of The News Tribune (Tacoma, Wash.)
Jon Chesto of The Patriot Ledger (Quincy, Mass.)

Weekly newspapers

Alair Townsend of Crain's New York Business
Ron Gifford of the Indianapolis Business Journal

Real-time news organizations

Michael Lewis of Bloomberg News
Michael Rapoport of Dow Jones Newswires
David Callaway of MarketWatch

Student Contest

Isabel Ordonez, University of Missouri School of Journalism, for Reuters: “Iraq, Afghanistan lure poor Latin American guards”

Certificate of merit: Amy Thomson, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, for Bloomberg: “Smith & Wesson, 'Dirty Harry' gun maker, targets Army”

Posted April 3, 2007