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Reuters honours its journalists of the year

Reuters has honoured its best journalists of 2009 in its annual Journalists of the Year awards.

Winners of 11 awards were honoured for their exceptional work at a ceremony in New York on Thursday attended by Thomson Reuters chairman David Thomson.

The news year demanded the best out of journalists and out of news organisations, editor-in-chief David Schlesinger said.

“I’m proud to say the 2,800 men and women of Reuters delivered. The world’s economies began a slow climb out from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression; the new administration in Washington faced tough new political realities; the war in Afghanistan escalated; and the debate over climate policy grew more heated. China flexed its economic and diplomatic muscles; the Gulf experienced the shuddering growing pains emerging economies can have; the competition for resources saw major players jockeying. Through all of this, our journalists were the eyes and ears of the world, doggedly and often bravely telling the globe’s stories.”

AWARDS

PHOTO OF THE YEAR

Carlos Barria, photographer based in Miami, for his photograph of a US soldier taking a break during a night mission in the Pesh Valley in Afghanistan.

EDITOR OF THE YEAR

Eric Burroughs, Asia financial markets editor based in Hong Kong, and Vidya Ranganathan, deputy Asia financial markets editor based in Singapore, for driving innovation and excellence and showing superb leadership in a year of focus on markets expertise.

VIDEO JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR

Roystan Chan, video journalist based in Shanghai, for impeccable video storytelling in China.

COMMENTARY & ANALYSIS JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR

John Kemp, commodities and energy columnist, for numerous agenda-setting commentary pieces.

PHOTO JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR

Toby Melville, photographer based in London, for his photographs documenting daily life in the United Kingdom.

REPORTER OF THE YEAR

Emma Graham-Harrison, correspondent based in Beijing, for consistently excellent reporting across asset classes.

VIDEO STORY OF THE YEAR

Afghanistan team, for consistently delivery outstanding team coverage of Afghanistan news in trying circumstances.

SCOOP OF THE YEAR

The US financial services team, for an exclusive with former Lehman CEO Richard Fuld.

MULTIMEDIA STORYTELLING OF THE YEAR

Larry Downing, senior staff photographer at the White House, for his photo essay on Arlington National Cemetery's Section 60.

STORY OF THE YEAR

Iran team coverage, for comprehensive coverage of a turbulent year in Iran.

EDITOR’S CHOICE

Markets Buzz/The dealing room team, for pioneering new ways of storytelling.

“We talk a lot about ‘new ways of storytelling’,” Schlesinger said. “By bringing chat rooms to life and to the fore editorially, this group actually did it.

“Editorial innovation has a very simple definition: using new tools in new ways to make the traditional craft of journalism relevant to customers in a new age.

“The team we honour - represented by Stuart Brown, Eric Burroughs, Dayan Candappa, Andrew Goldner and Phil Smith - brought journalism into the chat room, brought community building and management into the tool kit of the journalist, and made the snap and crackle of instant messaging an arm of storytelling.

“By creating a chat room ethos where hundreds of clients could lurk and then participate with Reuters journalists, with each other and with invited guests, this team showed that valuable new content could be created at the intersection of journalists and customers, where one-way traditional information-giving met the two-way street of information-sharing.

“This team understood the value we could create by forging a community of professionals with shared interests, passions and spirit.

“From the first tentative instant messages flowing into what seemed a void, they've created a new form of Reuters journalism that is becoming vibrant, important, valuable and a marketplace of ideas.

“Because of the imagination and innovation of this group, the Reuters journalist of the future will be as at home in the chat room as she is in the press conference, as conversant in the style of instant messaging as he is in the style of an analysis - and both our journalism and our service to clients will be richer as a result.”

Footnote: The master of ceremonies at the awards pronounced the name of the agency “rooters”. Members of the audience quickly corrected the howler.

CLICK to read other comments by David Schlesinger on the award winners. ■

SOURCE
Reuters