The Business Report team was honored with five national awards for editorial excellence by the Alliance of Area Business Publishers at the organization’s annual summer conference held over the weekend in Des Moines, Iowa.
Roughly 645 entries from 46 leading business publications in the U.S., Canada and Australia were judged by a team of faculty members at the University of Missouri School of Journalism for this year’s awards competition. AABP member publications are divided into small, medium and large groups for awards, with Business Report competing with the nation’s largest business publications, including those in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Dallas.
Business Report took home the gold in the Best Scoop category for being the first media outlet in the country to get LSU President F. King Alexander to speak on the record about the university’s decision to retain LSU football coach Les Miles late last year.
“Business Report Editor Stephanie Riegel didn’t give up …” the judges wrote. “She tracked down the university president and got an exclusive explanation of how and why the decision to keep the coach was made. Local competitors and national media were forced to follow and credit the Business Report.”
Business Report also won four silver awards in the following categories: Best Bylined Commentary for Riegel’s column, “The Big Picture”; Best Use of Multimedia for “The Brief,” an online animated news feature; Best Local Coverage of a National Business/Economic Story for Riegel’s cover story, “Immigration Dilemma”; and Best Ancillary Publication for 10/12 Industry Report, a quarterly magazine covering Louisiana’s industrial expansion.
Julio Melara, CEO of Louisiana Business Inc., parent company of Business Report, says he is “very proud of our entire team and thrilled with this national recognition for their work.”
“We are blessed to work every day with such talented and dedicated people,” he says. “It is also an honor to represent Baton Rouge and share this success with our community, which has supported us for 34 years. We are grateful and will continue our commitment to excellence.”
