A professional association of business journals has given the Los Angeles Business Journal nine journalism awards. The Business Journal’s affiliate newspaper, the San Fernando Valley Business Journal, won three, including golds for best scoop and best overall design.

The awards are given each year by the Alliance of Area Business Publishers, a trade group made up of regional business publications, such as city business journals and state or regional business magazines. The awards were presented at a banquet June 27 in Charlotte, N.C., where the AABP held its annual conference. Judging for the awards is done by the faculty of the University of Missouri journalism school.

The Business Journals also took prizes at the Los Angeles Press Club’s annual Southern California Journalism Awards held June 28.

The AABP’s system is like the Olympics in that it gives gold, silver and bronze awards. Here are the prizes:

The Los Angeles Business Journal’s design and production team headed by Sally Jones was awarded silver for best use of photography/illustration for the year-end review. “The content is organized well, and many of the stories benefit from dominant visual display,” the judges said.

The production team also took silver for best overall design. The judges said the Business Journal “combines excellent photography, especially in the portrait packages, with excellent typography and alternative story telling formats.”

James Rufus Koren took the silver for best body of work by a single reporter for his submission of four sample articles. “Koren is a reporter with many talents,” the judges said. “Most importantly, he spots stories in unlikely places and crafts them with great ability. The body of work from the past year is like no other – unusual, captivating and compelling.”

Veteran reporter Howard Fine won bronze for best print scoop for “Will NFL Team Link to Carson?” The judges said, “Fine took a simple tip and with a lot of hustle and a dash of ingenuity broke the story that the NFL’s San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders were jointly pursuing a golf course property as the site of a new football stadium. He left the competition – no less than the Los Angeles Times – to chase him two months later as the teams prepared an official announcement.”

Robert Landry, former design director, took silver for best special section design for the annual Wealthiest Angelenos package. The judges said of the signature issue, “It’s not easy to find fresh imaginative ways to design a running topic from year to year. But the Los Angeles Business Journal found a way on the 20th anniversary of their ‘Wealthiest Angelenos’ a fresh look.”

Landry also took silver in the feature layout category for the package.

Alfred Lee, a former legal affairs reporter, won silver for best explanatory story for his story “Pretzel Supplier Alleges Twisted Tale.” The judges said the article “provides a fascinating behind-the-scenes account of the cutthroat business practices of Trader Joe’s. … The plot twist at the end is an added treat.”

Lee was also awarded a bronze for best feature story for “Booze-Filled 7-Eleven Left Reeling,” taking a story the judges said could have been dull and turning it into “a fascinating tale of city zoning ordinances gone awry.”

A silver for the year’s best personality profile went to former reporter Tom Dotan for his look at Lynda and Stewart Resnick, the Business Journal’s businesspersons of the year.

The San Fernando Valley Business Journal took home a silver in the best newspaper category. Editor Laurence Darmiento and staff offered “a satisfying mix of content across a range of topics that reflect its constituency,” the judges said.

The sister paper also won gold for best overall design. “The content and presentation moves along with a mix of quick reads and longer stories that encourages engagement and avoids monotony,” the judges said.

Former reporter Elliot Golan also took gold, winning the best print scoop category for his story “Alfred Mann Selling Off Valley-Area Business Parks.”

Local awards

First-place awards at the Press Club include:

Hannah Miet, in the category of news feature under 1,000 words, for “Fuller Plates: IHOP Cooks Up Monster Meals Fit for Social Media”; Dotan, in the personality profile category, for his story about the Resnicks; Editor Charles Crumpley in commentary for his column “Creative Economy’s Naked Truth”; and Koren, who shared the prize for business reporting for his article “Good Deal: Casinos Split Over Wisdom of No-Collection Games.”

Second-place awards went to Newsdesk Editor Tom Hicks in the headline category for “High Times: Soaring Stock Mints First Legal Pot Billionaire”; entertainment reporter Sandro Monetti for “Baywatch Eyes Splash in China”; and Fine for his National Football League story in the hard news category. The Business Journal’s photographer, Ringo Chiu, took two second-place prizes, including for photographer of the year.

Third-place awards went to Landry for design of the Wealthiest Angelenos package; Fine in the sports category for the NFL and Carson story; Lee and Matt Pressberg in the investigative category for their story “Life Settlements”; and David Nusbaum for the online scoop “LA’s NFL Hopes Turn to Inglewood.”