Business Journal Gets National Contest Nod
A package of Business Journal stories on the cash spending of Hispanics in Orange County won a certificate of merit from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers in its 2003 Best in Business contest.
The Nov. 4 stories received the nod in the “projects” category for business weeklies. The society is an industry group based at the University of Missouri-Columbia and holds the national contest each year.
The Business Journal stories looked at the tendency of Hispanics here to bypass banks and rely instead on cash. The Business Journal worked with California State University, Fullerton, to study the cash spending of Hispanics, which was pegged at $2.4 billion a year.
Officials from Cal State Fullerton interviewed Hispanics about their spending and banking habits. The Business Journal’s Chris Cziborr, Vita Reed, Michael Lyster and former reporters Daniel Williams and Rajiv Vyas talked with banks, retailers, check cashers, truck vendors, healthcare providers and others for the stories.
The paper was picked for the recognition, an honorable mention, out of hundreds of entries from around the country. Sister paper the Los Angeles Business Journal won a projects award for a series on Global Crossing Ltd. and also got an overall excellence award.
In 2002, the Orange County Business Journal’s Cziborr won a spot enterprise award for a story about changes sweeping through Baja California’s border plants.
