Hawaii Business Wins 18 Awards in State Competition

Hawaii Business won 18 prizes, including 7 first place awards, at Friday night's Excellence in Journalism dinner hosted by the Hawaii chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

The awards were open to all Hawaii media and were based on work published or broadcast in 2017.

The honors came just a week after Hawaii Business won six national awards – five first place and one silver – including best regional business magazine in the country.

In Friday’s SPJ Hawaii ceremony, Hawaii Business won these awards in the magazines categories:

• First place in overall Page Design for the September, October and December issues. The design team is led by Creative Director Janelle Kalawe-Ching and included Kelsey Ige, Lilian Cheng and Amy Ngo.
• First place in Business Reporting for “Business’ Biggest Secret” by LiAnne Yu about why most businesses keep their employees’ pay secret and why a few companies are fully transparent. Another Hawaii Business article was a finalist in the same category, “Doing Business in The Shadows” by Tiffany Hill, about Hawaii’s underground economy in cockfighting, prostitution and recreational marijuana.
• First place in Feature Writing/Short Form for “You Are What You Surf” by Timothy Schuler about a local-born scientist who is studying how the microbes in surfers’ bodies interact with microbes in the ocean.
• First place for Magazine Cover for the October 2017 cover by Janelle Kalawe-Ching featuring two recent business school graduates in an homage to the iconic Rosie the Riveter poster. Kalawe-Ching’s December cover of First Hawaiian Bank CEO Bob Harrison was a finalist in the same category.
• A finalist award in Industry or Trade Reporting for “Farming’s Uncertain Future” by senior writer Beverly Creamer, a story about how rat lungworm disease has accelerated difficult changes in local farming.
• A finalist award for Best Single Feature Layout for “20 For The Next 20” in the March 2017 issue, designed by Associate Art Director Lilian Cheng.

In the all media categories, which are open to print, online, TV, radio and other all other media, Hawaii Business also won a series of awards:

• First place in Science Reporting for “Endangered and Underfunded” by Timothy Schuler, about how Hawaii gets less than its fair share of federal funding to protect endangered species.
• First place in Data Journalism for the “BOSS Survey” written by Editor Steve Petranik and based on research conducted by Anthology Marketing Research.
• First place in Informational Graphics for “24,000 Meals a Year” by designer Mae Ariola-Ordonez, for a story about school lunches in the April issue.
• A finalist award in the prestigious Public Service Reporting category for “100-Year Visions For Hawaii” by Petranik and the I Am Hawaii collective in the August issue.
• A finalist award for Health Reporting for “Hawaii’s Rural Hospitals on Life Support” by Noelle Fujii.
• A finalist award in the Editorial Cartoon/Illustration category for illustrations by Jonathan Bartlett for the “Doing Business in The Shadows” report on the local underground economy.
• A finalist award for Best Explanatory Journalism for “Hurricanes: The Other Checklist” by Lavonne Leong in the March 2017 issues.
• A finalist in the Headlines category for a collection of headlines by Petranik and the Hawaii Business staff: “His Formula for Success: Fail, Fail, Fail, Prevail”; “Death is His Life’s Work”; “JFK’s Killers Staged 9/11 to Hide Fake Moon Landing”; “The Doctor is Not In,” and “Till Debt Do Us Part.”

Students who worked as interns or freelancers also won two finalist awards in Any Media categories:

• Havard University student Jordan Virtue, a graduate of Hawaii Preparatory Academy on Hawaii Island, won in Student News Reporting for “Big Plans,” about China Oceanwide’s development plans for Ko Olina.
• UH Manoa student Nicole Tam, a graduate of Kaiser High on Oahu, won in Student Feature Reporting for “24 Million Meals a Year,” a story about the meals served by the public school system.

Two of Hawaii Business’ sister publications were also honored at the SPJ Hawaii awards: Honolulu Magazine won five place and 16 finalist awards, and Hawaii magazine won two first place and four finalist prizes.

To read about all the winners in all media, visit the SPJ Hawaii website.