PROVIDENCE – A three-part series by former PBN staff writer Eli Sherman won first-place recognition in the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing’s annual Best in Business competition, the organization announced Tuesday.
The series, titled “Rising Waters,” examined Rhode Island’s history with extreme weather events, the potential for even more damage as sea levels rise and the progress or lack thereof by government and businesses to prepare for changing weather patterns and other effects of climate change.
The package of stories, which ran Jan. 19, Feb. 16 and March 23, 2018, won in the Energy/Natural Resources category for small-business staffs (those with fewer than 50 editorial staff members; PBN has nine).
Judges for the competition had this to say about the series: “This three-part series deeply explores the history of storms in Rhode Island damaging coastal areas and the failures of policymakers and local officials to do more to prepare for the risks of climate change. Eli Sherman explores the articles from a variety of angles, and the research stands out. It’s an important warning to coastal residents and lawmakers in both Rhode Island and other areas that seem ill-prepared to deal with the growing risks of climate change. It makes effective use of data, historical research and photography to tell an eye-opening set of stories.”
In all, there were 946 entries in the program from 175 news organizations across the globe, including not only specialty business publications such as PBN but also general interest publications that include The New York Times. Winners will be recognized at SABEW’s 56th annual conference at Arizona State University’s Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix.
Two years ago, PBN won first-place honors for a two-part series by Sherman and staff writer Mary MacDonald about the controversy surrounding the need to replace Providence’s 6-10 Connector and plans to do just that. The package ran Oct. 28 and Nov. 4, 2016.
Last summer, PBN collected four awards at the annual Alliance of Area Business Publishers editorial excellence competition, winning second place among medium and large newspapers (behind Crain’s Chicago Business), a category for which the publication won third place in 2015. PBN took home second-place honors for best website, which was judged for all websites in the organization, an honor it also earned in 2013.
PBN staffers won second-place recognition for Best Editorial and Best Body of Work for a single reporter as well.
In the winter, PBN was judged to be the best specialty publication for the second year in a row by the New England Newspaper and Press Association. It was the fourth time in the last decade that PBN has won the award and the eighth time in the last 11 years that PBN was recognized as one of the top three specialty newspapers in the region.
