17-03-2025
The Post is recognized with five Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing awards
Washington Post journalists on the Business and Technology desk were recognized with five awards as part of the 2024 Best in Business competition by SABEW, the nation's largest association of business journalists.
Michelle Singletary won the top award in the Commentary/Opinion division, Large Market, for her multimedia series 'Scammed,' about a Maryland woman cheated out of her life savings by a con artist posing as an FBI agent. The judges called the seven-part series 'a 'wow' story that puts the reader deep inside a sophisticated financial scam operation,' praised Michelle for going the extra mile in her reporting and applauded how the videos, illustrations and other visual elements 'further humanize the story, vividly demonstrating how scam victims are manipulated.'
Koen De Gussem illustrated the project, with animation by Charlotte Dua, Karolien Raeymaekers and Bavo Croes. The project was edited by Robbie DiMesio, and included contributions from Kathleen Rudell-Brooks, Audrey Valbuena, Josh Carroll, Amber Ferguson, Tom LeGro, Haley Hamblin, Junne Alcantara, KC Schaper, Rivan Stinson, Sophie Yarbrough, Maite Fernandez Simon, Megan Bridgeman and Kathleen Floyd.
Michelle and Charla Freeland also won in the podcast/audio category for their Post Reports podcast episode on the project, which the judges said 'leaps off the page, or in this case, out of the speakers.'
These are Michelle's third and fourth SABEW honors: In 2022, she won for a series of columns about how the Internal Revenue Service is failing low-income citizens. And in 2019 she became the first woman of color to be presented with SABEW's Distinguished Achievement Award.
The Post also won in the retail category, where Lauren Kaori Gurley, Emmanuel Martinez and Julia Mata were honored for a selection of investigative stories about child labor in the fast-food industry. 'The investigation had a big impact, pushing powerful investment managers and public treasurers to demand McDonald's take tougher steps to address child labor violations at its franchises,' the judges wrote. The judges also praised a gorgeously rendered comic about a high school senior illegally scheduled to work late and long hours at a Los Angeles McDonald's. The project was edited by Jen Liberto.
In addition, SABEW judges recognized Post journalists with two honorable mentions:
The winners will be recognized at SABEW's annual conference April 3-5 in Washington, D.C. Please join us in congratulating these remarkable journalists!
