By Dominic Ponsford
A journalist whose remarkable career has included leading the Wall
Street Journal to 15 Pulitzer prize wins was honoured for a “Decade of
Excellence” at the Business Journalist of the Year Awards.
Paul Steiger has been managing editor of the Wall Street Journal
since 1991 and notably led his team’s Pulitzer-winning coverage of the
September 11 attacks.
The WSJ’s main office is opposite the World
Trade Center but despite being completely evacuated staff managed to
produce a special edition the following day.
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Steiger picked up
his prize at the Guildhall in London on a night in which the Wall
Street Journal Europe eclipsed UK-based publications by picking up five
awards.
There was a further turn-up as The Guardian beat specialist financial titles to the Newspaper of the Year prize.
The awards are run by the World Leadership Forum and overseen by a committee of the UK’s top financial editors.
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After
receiving the award Steiger, who has been managing editor of the Wall
Street Journal since 1991, said: “I was astonished and very pleased,
not so much for myself because it’s really for what the journalists
have accomplished.
“I’m very proud of what we’ve done – we’ve
extended our reach around the world and added several new important
strands of coverage.”
Describing what he believes makes a good journalist, Steiger said: “Writing ability is important but so is competitiveness.
When
I started in business, financial and economic journalism it was the
least competitive part of the market place. It’s now by far the most
competitive part.
“At the Wall Street Journal we’re the market
leader worldwide and we need to dominate. It’s not enough to be just
equal we have to be ahead.”
The Wall Street Journal has a worldwide circulation of 2.3 million and sells 87,000 in Europe.
The
winners were: Best Broadcast Story, Liam Halligan for How safe is your
pension? – Channel 4 News; Best Story on Banking, Bethany McLean for
Goldman Sachs: inside the money machine – Fortune; Best Story on
Business Leadership, Chip Cummins & Almar Latour for New age
manage-ment couldn’t help Shell solve old problems – Wall Street
Journal Europe; Best Story on a Company, Alessandra Galloni &
Yaroslav Trofimov for Tanzi’s power games helped Parmalat rise, but did
not cushion fall – Wall Street Journal Europe; Best Story on Economics,
Greg Ip for How US Fed chairman deftly steered economy through thick
and thin – Wall Street Journal Europe; Best Story on Entrepreneurship,
Daniel Roth for Catch us if you can – Fortune; Best Story on
Fast-Moving Consumer Goods, Betsy Morris for The real story – Fortune;
Best Story on an Industry, Richard Morais for Prozac nation: is the
party over? – Forbes; Best Story on a Merger, Acquisition or Flotation,
Ann Davis for UBS investment banker carves out a rich niche within US
health care – Wall Street Journal Europe; Best Story on Personal
Finance, Janice Revell for The $366 billion outrage – Fortune.
Best
Feature Writer, Richard Tomlinson – Fortune; Best Opinion or Editorial
Writer, James Surowiecki – The New Yorker; Magazine of the Year,
BusinessWeek; Best News Reporter, Chip Cummins – Wall Street Journal
Europe. Best Feature Writer, Chris Blackhurst – Evening Standard.
Best
Opinion or Editorial Writer, Martin Dickson – Financial Times;
Newspaper of the Year, The Guardian; Broadcast Journalist of the Year,
Michael Wilson – Sky News.
Online Journalist of the Year, Shai
Oster – Dow Jones Newswires; Business Journalist of the Year, Martin
Dickson – Financial Times.
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