F.Y.I.

Fairfax Media and Adele Ferguson lead pack for Walkleys business journalist nominations

Fairfax journalists are involved in all three of the nominations for the 2014 Walkley Awards Business category, with Adele Ferguson involved in two of the three shortlisted entries.

The release:

The three finalists in the prestigious Business category of the Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism were announced today at a lunch hosted by ING Direct in Sydney.

The Walkley Business Journalism Award finalists for 2014 are:

Nabila Ahmed, Sue Mitchell and James Chessell, The Australian Financial Review, “Myer, DJs merger proposed just before directors’ trade”, “DJs chairman must step down”, “Mason to purge DJs board”

Breaking the news that two of Australia’s most iconic companies had engaged in merger talks was a classic scoop. In their reporting, however, The AFR team also uncovered serious issues of corporate governance that led to the resignation of the chairman and two directors of David Jones.

Adele Ferguson and Ben Butler, Fairfax Media, “Macquarie Group financial planning scandal”,  “Macquarie’s bombshell a call to arms”, “Cheating rife in financial planning”

The Macquarie Group financial scandal revealed how tens of thousands of Australians were deliberately misclassified as “sophisticated” investors, leaving them exposed to high-risk, high-fee Macquarie products. Ferguson and Butler found sources and trawled through court records and documents to expose not only a rotten corporate culture but also the financial havoc inflicted on many customers.

Adele Ferguson, Deb Masters and Mario Christodoulou, Four Corners ABC TV and Fairfax Media, “Banking Bad”, “Rollo Sherriff and Meridien Wealth”, “Misconduct claims widen in CBA’s planning scandal”

The Commonwealth Bank financial planning scandal destroyed the life savings of some of the country’s most vulnerable people. The joint Four Corners/Fairfax Media investigation forced the bank to apologise and announce a $250 million-plus compensation scheme. It also triggered an overhaul of the corporate regulator and wholesale changes to the financial planning industry. A royal commission was called citing their revelations.

The judges were asked to select finalists from more than 40 entries, and said this year’s entries demonstrated the value of business journalism done well.

“Tenacious, forensic, entertaining, powerful, everything good reporting should involve,” the panel said. “It was also fascinating to see the innovation that is driving and improving our craft.”

To read all finalists’ work, visitwww.walkleys.com

The winners of the 59th Walkley Awards will be announced at a gala dinner on Thursday, December 4, at Dockside Pavilion, Darling Harbour, in Sydney.  The ceremony will be streamed live onABC iview nationally the same evening.

The judges for the 2014 Walkley Business Journalism Award were Fiona Buffini, chief of staff, The Australian Financial Review, James Daggar-Nickson, channel manager/business editor, SKY NEWS Business and Jackson Hewett, head of business video, The Australian and Business Spectator

Source: Walkley Foundation press release

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