Business Writers Win Accolades

By: (AP) Business writers from The Seattle Times and The Times-Picayune of New Orleans were among the winners of the 2002 Gerald Loeb Awards, one of the highest accolades in business journalism.

Paul Steiger, managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, received a lifetime achievement award at a presentation ceremony Monday evening in New York. Steiger is a longtime judge of the awards and received three of them earlier in his career.

Duff Wilson and David Heath of The Seattle Times won an award in the large newspaper category for an article on research conducted at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

A group of reporters from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans won an award in the medium newspaper category for "Unequal Opportunity," which uncovered abuses in local programs intended to help disadvantaged businesses that actually benefited the wealthy.

Other winners included:

-- Janet Patton of the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader in the small newspaper category for stories on the mysterious deaths of thoroughbred foals in a region where horse breeding is a big business.

-- David Henry and Nanette Byrnes of BusinessWeek won in the magazine category for reporting on accounting tricks that many companies use to make their results appear more rosy than they actually are.

-- Gretchen Morgenson of The New York Times won for commentary for her column "Market Watch."

-- Rebecca Smith and John Emshwiller of The Wall Street Journal won in the deadline or beat writing category for "Enron: The Demise of a Giant."

-- A group of Bloomberg news reporters won in the wire service category for "Muddy Markets: How Companies Mislead and Manipulate Their Shareholders with Inadequate and Selective Disclosure."

-- Cable News Network/CNNfn won in the television category for a story on terrorism financing called "The Money Trail" by Jim McGinnis, Allan Dodds Frank, and Lisa Slow.

The prizes are presented by The John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA.