2008 Gerald Loeb Award Winners Announced by UCLA Anderson School of Management

Daniel Hertzberg Receives Lifetime Achievement Award;
Lawrence Minard Editor Award Goes to Frank J. Comes
NEW YORK--(Business Wire)--
Journalists from across the nation gathered tonight at New York
City's Cipriani 42nd Street for the 2008 Gerald Loeb Awards Banquet.
The Loeb Awards are among the highest honors in journalism,
recognizing the work of journalists whose contributions illuminate the
world of business, finance and the economy for readers and viewers
around the world.

Judy D. Olian, dean of UCLA Anderson School of Management and
chairman of the G. and R. Loeb Foundation, welcomed Loeb Awards
honorees and their guests. Tyler Mathisen, managing editor of business
news and host of "High Net Worth" for CNBC, served as the master of
ceremonies.

The Loeb Awards includes two special awards for career
contributions, the Lifetime Achievement Award, which was given to
Daniel Hertzberg, and the Lawrence Minard Editor Award, which went to
Frank J. Comes. In addition, there are 13 competition categories in
which winners were named at the banquet. Following is a list of the
2008 Loeb Awards recipients along with brief synopses of their
award-winning works.

Large Newspapers Winners

Walt Bogdanich, Jake Hooker, David Barboza and Andrew W. Lehren of
The New York Times for "Toxic Pipeline"

This investigative series included exhaustive reporting and
colorful storytelling on an important topic - how dangerous and
poisonous pharmaceutical ingredients from small factories in rural
China have flowed into the global market. Reported on four continents,
this comprehensive series presented a compelling analysis of the
"toxic pipeline" that has had a devastating, sometimes deadly, cost to
humans.

Medium Newspapers Winners

Binyamin Appelbaum, Lisa Hammersly Munn, Ted Mellnik, Peter St.
Onge and Liz Chandler of The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer for "Sold A
Nightmare"

In this year-long series, the writers unraveled the story of the
subprime mortgage crisis through the prism of Beazer Homes USA, a
company that specialized in selling and helping finance homes for
first-time buyers. The reporters were able to vividly depict how the
subprime mortgage debacle came to be, uncovering Beazer's bad lending
practices and duplicitous incentives which led to rampant foreclosures
nationwide.

Small Newspapers Winners

Tony Bartelme of The Post and Courier (Charleston, S.C.) for "The
China Effect"

As a way to depict the impact that China's growth is having on
local economies, Bartelme told the story of a Charleston, S.C. man's
desperate journey to China to have stem cells injected into his back.
Reporting from southern China, Bartelme used narratives to provide a
clear visual of China's stunning economic and cultural transformation.
This was an ambitious and praiseworthy effort by a small newspaper to
bring the global economy home to its readers.

Magazines Winner

Allan Sloan of Fortune for "House of Junk"

Of the countless stories about the subprime crisis, this piece
stood out among the rest in depth of reporting and quality of writing.
By dissecting one subprime mortgage deal, Sloan said volumes in
relatively few words about what happened and why. The story turned a
spotlight on the underlying conflict on Wall Street, as firms sold
questionable subprime debt to investors even as they were profiting by
shorting similar investments.

Magazines Honorable Mention

Michael Lewis of The New York Times Magazine for "In Nature's
Casino"

Lewis took an extremely complicated subject - catastrophe and
insurance - and made it not only accessible but also entertaining. He
focused on one hedge fund manager's revolutionary method of risk
calculation to ensure that the costs of any large-scale disaster get
absorbed by the world's financial markets, as opposed to the insurance
industry alone. In turn, Lewis illuminates the human aspect of an
incredibly complex topic. A measure of the story's impact is that
Congress, as well as the governors of South Carolina, Florida, and the
mayor New Orleans, invited the mentioned hedge fund manager to testify
on the topic of catastrophic risk.

Commentary Winner

Joe Nocera of The New York Times for "Talking Business"

In this incisive series, Nocera raised eyebrows as he questioned
how responsible some "socially responsible" investing really is.
Nocera was tough on business executives and owners, examining
compensation practices and showing that socially responsible investing
can actually prove to be an arbitrary process. He up-ended
conventional wisdom with skill and obvious relish, and truly stood out
as he uncovered how economic issues intersect with human character.

Commentary Honorable Mention

Daniel Howes of The Detroit News for "Business Columnist"

In a clear, strong voice, Howes exhibited a deft ability to source
at the highest levels of business and government, exposing the factors
that contributed to Michigan's decline. His columns focused on
parallel stories of Detroit's automotive restructuring and the
economic challenges that dominate many facets of Michigan today. Howes
was able to explain complex events in simple terms and in their
historic context, cutting through the company spin to offer blunt
assessments of what these events mean for Detroit.

Breaking News Winners

Jenny Anderson and Landon Thomas Jr. of The New York Times for
"The Fall of E. Stanley O'Neal at Merrill Lynch"

These two reporters at The New York Times broke and kept breaking
the news, providing astonishing perspective and continuous scoops on
the ouster of Merrill Lynch CEO E. Stanley O'Neal. Written with
authority built on tremendous sourcing, this was a fascinating case
study of the downfall of a leader and simultaneously signified an
historic moment on Wall Street. The Times delivered reporting,
analysis and writing at breakneck speed, often reporting events before
they were announced.

Breaking News Honorable Mention

Katie Merx, Tim Higgins, Tom Walsh, Mark Phelan, Susan Tompor,
Sarah A. Webster, Katherine Yung and Joe Guy Collier of the Detroit
Free Press for "A New U.S. Auto Industry"

This special report was an authoritative, comprehensive
examination of a key day for Michigan readers - and for an iconic
American industry struggling to survive - in the pivotal labor
agreement reached in the aftermath of the UAW's strike against General
Motors. Merx and her colleagues at the Detroit Free Press did a superb
job of breaking the latest news, being the first in the nation to
report the terms of agreement online, while also adding context to
relay the broader significance of the agreement to future dealings
with U.S. automakers.

Beat Writing Winners

Kate Kelly, Serena Ng, Susanne Craig and David Reilly of The Wall
Street Journal for "Breakdown at Bear Stearns"

Kelly's relentless digging into the real story behind Bear
Stearns' upheaval shed massive light on key management failings at
Bear, making sense of a complicated, fast-moving story. The breadth of
reporting was very impressive, with reporters gaining access to
company emails and even golf records to reveal the underlying reasons
for the security firm's - and its CEO's - collapse. Kelly and team dug
out major news that reverberated through the financial world,
triggering criminal and civil investigations that may ultimately
change practices on Wall Street.

Beat Writing Honorable Mention

Charles Duhigg of The New York Times for "Golden Opportunities"

Duhigg created his own beat in a complicated and
reporter-unfriendly area as he explored how businesses and investors
have reaped enormous profits by exploiting elderly Americans. Through
vivid narratives and exhaustive data analysis, Duhigg's articles
described the many ways that the elderly are taken advantage of,
including telemarketing fraud and near-impossible insurance payouts.
The impact of Duhigg's work has been remarkable - resulting in 13
government investigations, 6 Congressional hearings, legislative
inquiries in 8 states, proposed laws, and wide-ranging industry
changes.

News Services Winners

Mark Pittman, Bob Ivry and Kathleen M. Howley of Bloomberg News
for "Wall Street's Faustian Bargain"

In this five-part series, the authors got behind the scenes to dig
up the origins of the toxic subprime securities market, exposing the
main players who created it by persuading investors around the world
to invest in high-risk, high-interest home loans. This was an
exemplary package of stories that used poignant human examples to show
how the subprime fiasco affected victims ranging from children whose
parents lost their homes to the most powerful executives on Wall
Street.

Feature Writing Winner

Charles Fishman of Fast Company for "Message in a Bottle"

Fishman took on a product that has become ubiquitous in everyday
life - plastic bottles of water - and showed how wasteful this
industry can actually be. At a time when so much attention is placed
on protecting the environment, the story presents a thought-provoking
argument about how consumers are sacrificing their ideals of a "green"
society for the sake of convenience. Fishman's work was wonderfully
crafted, combining great storytelling with compelling statistics to
prove a powerful point.

Online Winners

Art Lenehan, Anh Ly and Suzanne McGee of MSN Money for "Keeping Up
With The Wangs"

A multi-faceted exploration of the rise of China's middle class,
this project utilized video, text, and interactive charts to give
readers a full flavor of life in modern China. While the rising
affluence of Chinese consumers is well known, this display of
excellent explanatory journalism put non-Chinese readers on the scene
to show how rapidly China's middle class is changing. The pairing of a
seasoned business reporter and a producer with personal connections to
the story allowed for a first-person texture that enhanced and
enriched the reporting.

Television Daily Winners

Steve Washington, Darren Gersh, Dana Greenspon and Sanjay Jha of
PBS Nightly Business Report for "India's Promise"

With outstanding use of visuals and a unique approach to
storytelling, this four-part series explored the rise of India's
economy, providing a first-hand look at the implications of the
country's rapid development. The stories were distinctive in the way
that they visualized, humanized and personalized economic stories,
showing the enormity and diversity of India's population. This was an
outstanding series from Nightly Business Report that demonstrated how
enterprising broadcast journalism can lead to a better understanding
of international economic issues.

Television Enterprise Winners

Byron Harris, Mark Smith and Kraig Kirchem of WFAA-TV for "Money
for Nothing"

This investigative series was a probe into the U.S. Export-Import
bank and the millions of dollars in questionable loans that resulted
in a startling waste of tax money. The WFAA-TV team's tremendous
effort paid off, with shocking revelations about the failure of the
Export-Import Bank and how the government sent tax dollars to drug
traffickers, enabling drugs to make their way back to the U.S.

Business Book Winner

David A. Kaplan of William Morrow for "Mine's Bigger: Tom Perkins
and the Making of the Greatest Sailing Machine Ever Built"

This tale of venture capital pioneer Tom Perkins and his quest to
build the world's greatest clipper ship was a compelling story about
one of the most influential figures in the Silicon Valley. Kaplan
artfully wove great reporting into his narrative, making for an
entertaining, smart and powerful book.

UCLA Anderson School of Management
Mary Ann Lowe, (310) 206-1877
loeb@anderson.ucla.edu

Copyright Business Wire 2008