For the third year running, the Business Journal took home a slate of awards from the Los Angeles Press Club after its annual Southern California Journalism Awards presentation for outstanding news coverage in 1999.
Out of a total of 10 possible awards for newspapers of circulation of less than 100,000, the Business Journal won three more than any other single publication.
Under the category of Team Reporting, the Business Journal won the top award for its April 5, 1999 series, “A Day in the Life of Los Angeles.” The entire staff was sent out to various locations around the city, from the early hours of the morning until midnight, to chronicle the behind-the-scenes working life of the city.
“The judges loved their vignettes,” commented KCAL-TV Channel 9 anchor Kerry Kilbride, who acted as a presenter during the awards.
In the category of Investigative Reporting, the Business Journal staff won the top award for another major series, “Forgotten Angelenos,” a report that ran in three successive issues on Dec. 6, 13 and 20, 1999. A judge wrote that the team’s work “informs without getting sentimental.”
Finally, Business Journal staff reporter John Brinsley won the award for the year’s Best Business Story with his article “Eyes Wide Shut Hollywood’s Obsession Over Runaway Production,” published in the Aug. 2, 1999 issue. Brinsley was also runner-up in the Print Journalist of the Year competition for newspapers with circulation under 100,000; that award was won by Cheryl Romero of the Los Angeles Daily Journal.
The Press Club Awards are judged every year by a panel of journalists who work outside the Los Angeles area. This year’s ceremony featured the presentation of the club’s top awards to two well-known local journalists: Patt Morrison of the Los Angeles Times, who was given the Joseph M. Quinn Memorial Award for a career of distinction, and Adelphia Communications chief Bill Rosendahl, who was given the President’s Award.
Other major winners were Television Journalist of the Year Eric Longabardi, a freelance TV reporter; Television Photojournalist of the Year Larry Green of KCBS-TV Channel 2; Radio Journalist of the Year Marc Cooper of KPFK-FM 90.7; and Print Journalist of the Year for a publication with circulation of 100,000 or more, Paul Watson of the Los Angeles Times’ Vienna bureau.
