NAREE's 54th Annual Real Estate Journalism Award Winners
/(Houston, TX) May 26, 2004) – The National Association of Real Estate Editors (NAREE) today announced the winners of its 54th Annual Journalism Awards at a luncheon at the Hilton Americas-Houston during its annual journalism conference. For over half a century, the awards program has recognized excellence in real estate and building design industry reporting, writing and editing.
Entries from professional journalists from across the U.S. were received in 17 different categories during this year’s NAREE competition. NAREE journalism awards total $5,500 and this year's first place overall individual category winner received a $1,250 award. All first place category winners were awarded a $250 stipend and all winners received a certificate of excellence.
The award winners were selected by a panel of expert judges from the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University. The judging panel was chaired by Professor Patrick S. Washburn, a former news reporter and editor. Steve Hallock, a doctoral candidate at Ohio U. and 20-year newspaper editor & feature writer along with Mike Sheehy, an Ohio U. doctoral candidate and reporter and editor for 12 years, also judged each entry.
Founded in 1929, NAREE is celebrating it's 75th anniversary this year. NAREE is the only professional association for the nation’s journalists covering residential and commercial real estate for the consumer and trade media. Members report on real estate finance, housing policy, the environment, urban growth, land use, investment, construction, design and related trends. Active members include editors, staff reporters, columnists and freelance writers working in print, broadcast and online media.
This year’s award recipients include:
Best Overall Entry by an Individual (chosen from categories 1-9)
Winner: Dan Tracy, Orlando Sentinel
Second Place: R. Michelle Breyer, Austin American Statesman
Comment on Winner: “Words that describe Dan Tracy’s investigative series include: initiative, determination, doggedness, instinctiveness, and courage. The series performed a true public service, and current and future homeowners came away with a wealth of information that they would not have otherwise had. Playing a huge role in the success of the series was the imagination showed by Tracy in sourcing and research.”
James D. Carper Award for Best Entry by a Young Journalist
Winner: Sean Roth, Gulf Coast Business Review
Second Place: James Temple, San Francisco Business Times
Comment on Winner: “He produced an unusually strong effort…he writes well and has a good grasp of large and complex issues facing the real estate industry. He demonstrates reporting instincts and abilities that go well beyond single industry issues.”
Category 1: Best Newspaper Report (More Than 200,000 Circulation)
Winner: Daniela Deane, Washington Post
Second Place: John Handley, Chicago Tribune
Comment on Winner: “The article, about the rebirth of a rundown block in Washington, is an excellent examination using sources who live in the block as well as those who have participated in redeveloping the area. The story focused on people, who have been affected by the neighborhood’s turnaround. It appeals to a wide audience because such neighborhoods in urban areas are common, and thus this is a microcosm of problems in this city and others around the country. The writing was excellent.”
Category 2: Best Newspaper Report (Less Than 200,000 Circulation)
Winner: Sean Roth, Gulf Coast Business Review
Second Place: James Temple, San Francisco Business Times
Comment on Winner: “This is an excellent example of explanatory and analytical journalism which looks at a controversy involving eminent domain on behalf of public interests vs. individual property rights. The reporter clearly presented, in a well organized and reported story, the conflict, the history, and the reasoning by both sides of this dispute, giving the reader an understandable explanation of this complex issue.”
Category 3: Best General Circulation Magazine Report
Winner: Mari McQueen, Consumer Reports
Second Place: Michael Blanding, Boston Magazine
Comment on Winner: “This article warned of the hazards of new-home buying and identified what has become a national problem because of a housing construction boom and a growing demand for housing. The article looked at a problem that has been dealt with journalistically at the local level and gave it a national spin, including interviews with people who have experienced problems with defective housing. And importantly, it called for government action and gave advice to consumers on how to get help.”
Category 4: Best Trade Magazine Report
Winner: Alison Rice, Builder Magazine
Second Place: Sharon O’Malley, Building Products
Comment on Winner: “This is an important story about revitalizing an old Chicago neighborhood, which was nationally notorious for crime and social blight, and making it attractive for new residents with upgraded and affordable housing. As such, it pointed to an issue with major social implications in urban settings. The article was well written for its specific audience and was extensively researched with numerous interviews. It provided a lot of perspectives from developers to city officials.”
Category 5: Best Online Report
Winner: Matthew Cox and Jeannine DeFoe, Bloomberg News
Second Place: Steve Kerch, CBS MarketWatch
Comment on Winner: “This report on the Mohawk Tribe’s casino plan in upstate New York combined solid sourcing, research, and background with good writing to produce an understandable piece of real estate finance news. It took not only a specific issue—an attempt to combine political and diplomatic skills to put together a gambling casino deal—but it peaked to a larger issue: tribal gaming and resort deal-making generally. This was high-quality newspaper journalism done for online readers.”
Category 6: Best Broadcast Report (Radio, Television, Online)
Winner: Ilyce R. Glink, WGN-TV
Second Place: Robert Griswold, NBC News-San Diego affiliate
Comment on Winner: “This piece on modular housing is an interesting subject that is becoming increasingly important in urban areas and to consumers’ bank accounts. The show gave a lot of information in a concise report with good visuals and interviews, which showed the process from start to finish.”
Category 7: Best Column (All Media)
Winner: Mary Umberger, Chicago Tribune
Second Place: Kenneth Harney, Washington Post Writers Group
Comment on Winner: “Mary Umberger has a personable writing style, which flows easily without the use of jargon, such as investmentese or real estatese, that sometimes trips up even the most sophisticated and knowledgeable reader. In addition, her subjects were those that would interest not only real estate specialists but also common readers and property buyers. Finally, she tells stories, and that should be the bottom line for any reporter.”
Category 8: Best Serial Report (All Media)
Winner: Dan Tracy, Orlando Sentinel
Second Place: J. Martin McOmber and Bob Young, Seattle Times
Comment by Winner: “This investigative series on housing construction defects was strong for several reasons. First was the method—hiring a housing consultant, training university engineering students to conduct house inspections, randomly selecting a sampling of purchasers of new homes in developments, and then painstakingly going through the houses. All of this was combined with thorough public document and legislative research, interviews with people involved in the process, and a clear attempt to get all sides of the story. Second, the reporter centered the story on people affected by the shoddy construction and this was well documented with the story told through their eyes—and their pocketbooks. This was superb reporting.”
Category 9: Best Collection of Work by an Individual (All Media)
Winner: R. Michelle Breyer, Austin American Statesman
Second Place: J. Martin McOmber, Seattle Times
Comment on Winner: “Michelle Breyer rose to the top in this category, in which the entries were exceptionally strong from top to bottom, because of her in-depth portrayals of real estate and development issues at the forefront of the Austin community. She is particularly to be congratulated for her thorough research about the airport development issue, which included on-site visits to several other cities around the country facing similar airport issues. The writing was good and brought the issues home to readers in ways they could understand.”
Category 10: Best Real Estate or Home Section (More than 200,000 Circulation)
Winner: Carl Larsen, San Diego Union-Tribune
Second Place: Maryann Haggerty, Washington Post
Comment on Winner: “This newspaper section continues to operate at a high level, giving readers a lot of information on a range of real estate topics with the use of straight news, news features, and commentary. Some of the material clearly would warrant front-page treatment because of its news value and timeliness. This is coupled with high quality writing, excellent design and visuals, and first-rate color reproduction.”
Category 11: Best Real Estate or Home Section (Less Than 200,000 Circulation)
Winner: Elizabeth Browne, San Francisco Business Times
Second Place: Terence F. Egan, Banker & Tradesman
Comment on Winner: “This section has strong news content that covers residential and commercial real estate issues and trends in the San Francisco area. It effectively uses graphics in discussing real estate projects that are planned or under way and has excellent writing and good use of color. Coverage is in depth, such as a package which ran on Oakland.”
Category 12: Best General Circulation Magazine
Winner: Adele Cygelman, Robb Report Collection
Second Place: Carl Larsen, SD Home
Comment on Winner: “It covers a range of high-end residential housing issues and lifestyle choices for an elite audience of affluent consumers. It has: excellent design, photography, and layouts; top quality printing; and interesting writing that explores topics clearly of interest to the readers of this magazine.”
Category 13: Best Trade Magazine
Winner: Boyce Thompson, Builder Magazine
Second Place: Editors, Architectural Record
Comment on Winner: “This publication has it all for those in the home building industry: features on companies that are performing well with the magazine telling readers how they are doing it; legal advice; and technical information on how to deal with contemporary building problems, such as mold. All of this is aimed at helping builders do a better job. A real strength of the magazine is its regular departments. A reader gets the sense that if the current edition does not address a building problem or issue, a past one did or a future one will.”
Category 14: Best Real Estate Business Magazine
Winner: Michael Lester, REITStreet
Second Place: Cynthia Hoffman, Real Estate Forum
Comment on Winner: “This is a nicely packaged magazine with timely news and feature coverage about real estate investment trusts and related issues. The stories are interesting and cover some of the nation’s prominent real estate properties, for example the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. It is well designed with sharp photographic reproduction and is easy to read with help from graphics.”
Category 15: Best Web Site
Winner: Laura Lorber, RealEstateJournal.com
Second Place: John Salustri, GlobeSt.com
Comment on Winner: “This web site is a consumer-friendly offering that helps users navigate through several areas of expertise and advice, such as finance, home projects, homes in areas where people want to live, and information on buying and selling. All around, it is aimed at the general real estate consumer and contains a wealth of data and information.”
Category 16: Best Independent Newsletter
Winner: Jessica Kearney Heidgerken, Institutional Real Estate Letter
Second Place: Paul Fiorilla, Commercial Mortgage Alert
Comment on Winner: “This newsletter is almost a magazine in its size and scope. It is full of trends and news items that keep its readers abreast of their industry in a no-nonsense, straight-to-the-point writing style. It contains an interesting and useful section of graphs analyzing market trends.”
Category 17: Best Team Report (All Media)
Winner: Matthew Power, Christina Farnsworth, Alison Rice, Steve Zurier and Rich Binsacca, Builder Magazine
Second Place: Charles Linn and Alan Joch, Architectural Record
Comment on Winner: “This article, about rising housing costs leaving behind millions of working families, is extremely well researched—from in-depth interviews with middle-class workers to advice on how to overcome the burgeoning problem. Its strengths are not only the profiles of those affected but the reader friendly graphics, including the use of color and photographs, coupled with financial and industry information.”
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For more information contact Mary Doyle-Kimball at 561-391-3599