Annual Barlett & Steele Awards announce 2022 categories

Awards to expand recognition of investigative business journalism at regional and local news organizations; honor outstanding young journalists


May 18, 2022

Since its inception in 2007, the Barlett & Steele Awards have blazed a high-visibility path of excellence in rewarding incisive business reporting that “tells us something we don’t know.”

Starting this year, the Barlett & Steele Awards will expand the number of awards given for outstanding investigative business journalism to better recognize work done at regional and local news organizations and honor outstanding young journalists. Journalists receiving award for investigative reporting on stage 2021 Gold Award recipients from ProPublica receive their award at a Must See Monday event in Downtown Phoenix at the Cronkite School. Download Full Image

The awards will now have two categories: one for news organizations with a national or global audience and/or a newsroom with more than 100 editorial staff, and the other for organizations with a regional or local focus and/or a newsroom with 100 or fewer journalists.

Each category will have a gold, silver and bronze award. Gold awards come with a cash prize of $3,000, sliver with $2,000 and bronze with $1,000.

In addition, there will be a new annual award for Outstanding Young Journalist. This award will recognize the work of a journalist under 30 years of age who demonstrates outstanding ability in investigative business reporting. One award will be given each year, and it will carry a $3,000 cash prize.

The awards are named for the illustrious investigative business journalist team of Don Barlett and Jim Steele, who have worked together for more than four decades, receiving two Pulitzer Prizes, two National Magazine awards and a long list of other journalism awards. The annual awards are sponsored by the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

“The expansion of this award is a wonderful way to recognize even more journalists who are doing essential work to investigate and report on important issues in business and finance,” Steele said.

"Despite the challenges newsrooms are facing today — particularly smaller newsrooms — there is a lot of great business journalism being produced throughout the country," said Jeffrey Timmermans, Reynolds Center director. "We want to celebrate, and encourage, these efforts to keep American citizens informed about their economy and watch over the companies we rely on so much in our daily lives."

Last year, "The Secret IRS Files" series by ProPublica received the Gold Award for their investigative work exposing how the wealthiest people in America avoided paying their fair share of taxes at a time when wealth inequality has become a national crisis.

“These amazing revelations show just how – and how far – well-known members of America’s super rich go to slash their tax bills to the very minimum, or pay no taxes at all,” the judges said. “The reporters painstakingly vetted the figures for accuracy, did more reporting and clearly explained the findings with striking individual case studies and creative graphics.”

Entries for the Barlett & Steele Awards will undergo an initial vetting round by the faculty of ASU's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, with a panel of distinguished financial journalists making the final decision for each award.

Applications for entry begin June 1, with a submission deadline of July 31. The winners of the awards will be announced in October.

Entries must have been published or broadcast between July 1, 2021, and June 30, 2022. There are no entry fees for the Barlett & Steele Awards.

Julianne Culey

Communications Specialist, Center for Gender Equity in Science and Technology

989-741-3690

Timmermans to lead Reynolds Center for Business Journalism at Cronkite School


June 18, 2021

Jeffrey Timmermans, an accomplished business journalist and educator, has been named the Reynolds Chair in Business Journalism at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Timmermans will direct the Cronkite School's Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism, which works with journalists around the world to improve the quality of coverage of business and the economy, as well as teach business journalism courses. Jeffrey Timmermans, an accomplished business journalist and educator, has been named the Reynolds Chair in Business Journalism at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Jeffrey Timmermans, who has more than a decade of professional experience as a business journalist in the U.S. and Asia, will direct the Cronkite School's Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism, which works with journalists around the world to improve the quality of coverage of business and the economy, as well as teach business journalism courses. Download Full Image

As head of the Reynolds Center and an endowed chair, he will develop strategies to advance business journalism in the digital age, build partnerships across the university and industry and expand training programs for business journalists domestically and abroad.

“I’ve been using Reynolds Center’s materials in my teaching for years, so it’s a tremendous honor to take on this new role,” Timmermans said. “Business and financial news impacts all of us, and business journalists today face a daunting task in helping readers and viewers make sense of it all. The Reynolds Center will continue to be at the forefront of that effort — globally.”

Timmermans currently is associate professor of practice and director of the undergraduate journalism program at the University of Hong Kong, where he teaches economics and business and financial journalism courses for both graduate and undergraduate students.

He has more than a decade of professional experience as a business journalist in the U.S. and Asia. He covered the finance and banking industries for many years, serving as the Tokyo correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, correspondent for the AP-Dow Jones News Service in Tokyo, and correspondent for the International Financing Review in Hong Kong. He also served as senior correspondent and Hong Kong bureau chief for Dow Jones Newswires.

In 2000, Dow Jones Newswires/The Wall Street Journal named Timmermans news editor with responsibility for overseeing equities coverage for the Asia-Pacific region. He was subsequently named managing editor, holding that position until he left in 2007 to become associate director for public relations at Bain & Company, one of the world’s top business consulting firms, where he was responsible for leading and implementing the company’s public relations strategy in Asia.

Timmermans began his journalism career in 1991 as deputy editor of the Gunma Commerce Journal in Japan, where he helped produce the monthly Japanese-language newspaper and was the first non-Japanese employee to work at the publication.

In addition to his faculty position at the University of Hong Kong, Timmermans founded and operates Backslash Media Ltd., an independent Hong Kong-based media consulting firm that provides media training and other services for multinational clients.

“Jeffrey brings to the Reynolds Center deep expertise in business journalism, international experience and an understanding of what business journalists need to do their jobs well,” said interim Dean Kristin Gilger. “On top of all that, he brings a real passion for teaching the next generation of business journalists.”

The Reynolds Center has provided training to tens of thousands of journalists and educators since it was established in 2003 by former CNBC television anchor and reporter Andrew Leckey at the American Press Institute in Virginia. It was moved to the Cronkite School three years later with permanent funding from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation.

In addition to providing in-person training in the U.S. and abroad, the center offers a range of resources for business journalists at businessjournalism.org and works with other journalism schools to promote the teaching of business journalism.

As director, Timmermans also will place Cronkite School students in business journalism internships, teach in the school’s specialization for students interested in pursuing business journalism careers and oversee the national Barlett & Steele Awards for Investigative Business Journalism, which recognize the best business reporting each year.

Timmermans earned his PhD from the University of Hong Kong in 2016. He also holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University, New York, and a bachelor’s degree from Colgate University, also in New York.

Jamar Younger

Associate Editor, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication