IPJ PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISM AWARDS

Clark Mollenhoff Award for Investigative Reporting     

Award for Excellence in Economic Reporting

Award Guidelines      2009 Award Recipients      Past Winners  

2009 AWARD RECIPIENTS

Award for Excellence in Economic Journalism 2009 Winners

Team of 15 Reporters
The Wall Street Journal
“The Financial Crisis: The Weekend That Wall Street Died”

A talented corps of 15 reporters at the Wall Street Journal won the Institute on Political Journalism's prestigious Excellence in Economic Reporting Award for 2009. Their 10 articles described the turning points to last fall's Wall Street crash and the ensuing global credit crunch.


This annual award normally goes to an individual or small group of reporters who craft a specific series of articles demonstrating the working of one area of business and markets. However the judges found that the scope and drama of the credit crisis warranted the small army of reporters that was deployed by the Journal editors.

"Their coverage was detailed, dramatic, precise and contained too many revelations to count," said Rich Thomas, retired Newsweek reporter, who chaired the judges panel. The other judges were Mike Ruby, former editor of U.S. News and World Report, and John Merline, former Washington Bureau Chief of Investor’s Business Daily and USA Today editorial writer.

Reporters authoring or co-authoring one or more of the articles were Kara Scannell, Susanne Craig, Carrick Mollenkamp, Serena Ng, Aaron Lucchetti, Deborah Solomon, Dennis K. Berman, Jon Hilsenrath, Damian Paletta, Mark Whitehouse, Ianthe Jeanne Dugan, E.S. Browning, David Enrich, Jeffrey McCracken, and Kate Kelly.

Mollenhoff Award for Excellence in Investigative Journalism 2009 Winner

Michael Berens & Ken Armstrong
The Seattle Times
“ Culture of Resistance”

The series examined the effects of the drug resistant germ MRSA that lurks in Washington hospitals infecting patients and staff at an alarmingly high rate. Their investigation revealed how the sloppy, uneven response by some hospitals has failed to confront the infection or adequately inform the public. Armstrong and Berens’ series demands for greater transparency by more aggressively monitoring and enforcing hygiene rules in hospitals as well as informing the public of the MRSA infection rates, related traumas, and death.