International Center for Journalists Announces Winners of McGraw-Hill Personal Finance Journalism Awards

By: E&P Staff The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) announced today that three Hispanic journalists will receive the first McGraw-Hill Personal Finance Journalism Awards for their stories that helped raise financial literacy in Hispanic communities.

The journalists were selected from among 30 reporters from print, online, radio and television news organizations who participated in a 13-week online program, taught in English and Spanish, designed to provide in-depth knowledge of consumer finance issues of particular importance to Latinos.

The winners are:

First Place: Adriana G?mez for her article "When Immigration Meets the American Dream" in the The Roanoke (Va.) Times. The article pinpoints the new challenges immigrants face in securing a home loan during a recession.

Second Place: Enrique Flor of El Sentinel newspaper in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for his article "Defensa gratuita para foreclosures," which also included an accompanying Web story and video on how Latinos can seek free legal support when faced with possible foreclosures.

Third Place: Ana Carolina Gonz?lez, for her story "Gu?a para elegir una Consejer?a de Cr?dito," a step-by-step guide to finding a credit counselor, published on the Real Atlanta Web site (www.real-atlanta.com).

The ICFG administered the program, which was funded by The McGraw-Hill Companies. Over three years, this program has trained more than 100 journalists writing for Hispanic communities throughout the United States. Winners were nominated by their instructors Chris Roush -- a member of the faculty at University of North Carolina School of Journalism and Mass Communication and administrator of a leading business Web site, www.talkingbiznews.com -- and Xavier Serbia, syndicated columnist and founder/editor-in-chief of personal finance Web site XavierSerbia.com. ICFJ experts made the final selection.

The winners will be honored on Oct. 27 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C, featuring keynote speaker Ron Lieber, a New York Times personal finance columnist. A panel discussion moderated by ICFJ's president Joyce Barnathan will follow, featuring Lieber and Serbia.

"From the start, this program was created to help Hispanics make smart financial decisions," said ICFJ President and former BusinessWeek Executive Editor Barnathan. "The winners provide insights that help Latino communities navigate intelligently during a time of economic distress."

Through the Hispanic Personal Finance Reporting Program, Latino journalists published dozens of stories on topics such as the housing crisis, health insurance, Latino disability, remittances, mortgage and tax reduction, the use of credit cards, and credit unions for Hispanics.