Blade's 'Coingate' team wins national recognition
6/27/2006NEW YORK - A team of Blade reporters has won a prestigious national business journalism award for the newspaper's coverage of Ohio's rare-coin scandal.
During a ceremony last night, Christopher D. Kirkpatrick, Joshua Boak, Steve Eder, James Drew, and Mike Wilkinson were named the recipients of the Gerald Loeb Award for medium-sized newspapers. The Loeb Awards, among the highest honors in business journalism, are presented by the University of California at Los Angeles' Anderson School of Management. The awards recognize print and broadcast media for significant contributions to business, financial, and economic journalism.
The winning entry in each category receives a $2,000 prize.
The Blade's reporting team, supervised by special projects editor Dave Murray, was recognized for its examination of the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation's failed $50 million rare-coin venture with former Toledo-area coin dealer and Republican fund-raiser Tom Noe.
The Blade won top honors this year in the National Headliner Awards for its coverage of the coin scandal. The newspaper also was a finalist in the Pulitzer Prize Public Service category.
Other winners last night included the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for large newspapers and the Morning Call of Allentown, Pa., for small papers.