Inman News won a first-place award for its website from the National Association of Real Estate Editors, the group announced June 4.
Inman News’ Inman.com received top honors in NAREE’s journalism awards category recognizing "Best Web site solely devoted to residential or commercial real estate and/or home design." In second place was EcoHomeMagazine.com.
Additionally, Inman News columnist and contributor Mary Umberger received NAREE’s President’s Award for Best Freelance Collection for a package of articles that included a profile published at Inman.com featuring a young real estate professional (see "Real estate tycoon at 24").
In a comment about Umberger’s freelance work, judges said, "This writer’s offbeat columns are fun to read because they are not conventional real estate facts and figures. The columns on speed-dating for a contractor and a profile of a condo ‘vulture’ were eye-catching. She says that she ‘tries hard not to be a how-to-buy-a-house real estate writer,’ and she clearly succeeds in doing this."
NAREE’s 60th Annual Journalism Awards featured a near-record number of entries from professional journalists across the country, the group announced, with winners named in 25 categories.
Also, in a separate NAREE awards presentation recognizing real estate authors, Inman News columnist Janet Portman, along with co-authors Marcia Stewart and Michael Molinksi, received a Silver Award for the book "First-Time Landlord: Renting out a Single-Family Home," published by Berkeley, Calif.-based Nolo.
Portman’s shared Silver Award was a part of the Robert Bruss Real Estate Book Awards, established to commemorate the Inman News columnist who died in 2007.
Anthony Downs won the book awards’ Gold Award for "Real Estate and the Financial Crisis," published by The Urban Land Institute.
And the Bronze Award went to Dwight H. Merriam for "At the Cutting Edge 2008: Land Use Law from the Urban Lawyer," published by American Bar Association.
In the journalism awards, Jason Hidalgo, a reporter for the Reno Gazette-Journal, won the President’s Award for Best Overall Entry by an Individual Winner. Judges said, "Utilizing a rich array of data sources, the writer demonstrates expertise across a variety of stories, from the personal and intimate to the national."
Judges added, "Particularly outstanding is a focus story which surely shocked readers with the magnitude of the foreclosures and defaults resulting from adjustable rate mortgages. What is significant about this article are the instructions that it gives to readers about how to avoid unfortunate mortgage terms, and the inclusion of an online foreclosure database."
Dan Miller of the Los Angeles Business Journal received the President’s Award for Best Entry by a Young Journalist. "When one of Los Angeles’ major real estate moguls, Richard Meruelo, finally agreed to be interviewed in the middle of his bankruptcy proceedings, the reporter put together an informative, insightful and fun-to-read profile," judges said.
"The lead about a confrontation in a parking lot when Meruelo was a young man was so good that readers from all backgrounds, including those with little or no interest in real estate, were pulled into the article and wanted to keep reading. In another story, he uncovered a federal investigation of a businessman who was at the top of a real estate empire and became known as ‘L.A.’s Bernie Madoff’ after six stories by Miller."
The following is a full list of category winners:
Category 1: Best Residential Real Estate Report in a Daily Newspaper. Winner: Tim Logan and Kevin Crowe, St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Second Place: Lori Weisberg, San Diego Union-Tribune. Honorable Mention: Bob Hagerty, Wall Street Journal.
Category 2: Best Mortgage or Financial Real Estate Report in a Daily Newspaper. Winner: Mary Shanklin, Orlando Sentinel. Second Place: Lori Weisberg, San Diego Union-Tribune.
Category 3: Best Commercial Real Estate Report in a Daily Newspaper. Winner: Anton Troianovski, Wall Street Journal. Second Place: Kris Hudson, Wall Street Journal.
Category 4: Best Report in a Daily Newspaper under 250,000 Circulation. Winner: Carol Hazard, Richmond Times-Dispatch. Second Place: Josh Brown, The Virginian-Pilot.
Category 5: Best Report in a Weekly Business Newspaper. Winner: Kari Hamanaka, California Real Estate Journal. Second Place: Kim A. O’Connell, Onsite/Washington Business Journal.
Category 6: Best Real Estate, Mortgage or Financial Report in a Magazine. Winner: Lisa Gibbs, Money Magazine. Second Place: Scott Kaufmann, Ocean Home Magazine.
Category 7: Best Trade Magazine Report for the Residential Real Estate, Mortgage/Finance, or Homebuilding/Residential Development Industries. Winner: Matt Power, Green Builder Magazine. Second Place: Jenny Sullivan, Builder Magazine.
Category 8: Best Trade Magazine Report for the Commercial Real Estate Industry. Winner: Les Shaver, Multifamily Executive. Second Place: Rachel Azoff, Multifamily Executive.
Category 9: Best Residential Real Estate or Mortgage/Finance Report or Feature. Winner: John Gittelsohn, Bloomberg News. Second Place: Karen Aho, MSN Real Estate.
Category 10: Best Commercial Real Estate Report. Winner: Daniel Taub and Ari Levy, Bloomberg News. Second Place: Andrew Deichler, CoStar.com News.
Category 11: Best Blog. Winner: lIyce Glink, "Home Equity" Moneywatch.Bnet.com. Second Place: Tim Bryant and Tim Logan, St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Category 12: Best Broadcast Report — Online, Radio or Television — Local, Network or Cable Channels. Winner: John Wordock (with Ann Cates), MarketWatch.com and MarketWatch Radio Network. Second Place: Rebecca Teagarden, Seattle Times.
Category 13: Best Home and Design Feature. Winner: Aisha Sultan, St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Second Place: Mary Beth Breckenridge, Akron Beacon Journal.
Category 14: Best Column. Winner: Ken Harney, Washington Post Writers Group. Second Place: Lew Sichelman, United Features Syndicate.
Category 15: Best Series. Winner: Kirsten Grind, Puget Sound Business Journal. Second Place: Michael M. Phillips, Wall Street Journal.
Category 16: Best Collection of Work by an Individual. Winner: Lori Weisberg, San Diego Union Tribune. Second Place: Mary Shanklin, Orlando Sentinel. Honorable Mention: Carol Hazard, Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Category 17: Best Newspaper Real Estate or Home Section More Than 250,000 Circulation. Winner: Stacy Downs, Kansas City Star. Second Place: Maryann Haggerty, Elizabeth Razzi, Renae Merle and Dina EIBoghdady, Washington Post.
Category 18: Best Newspaper Real Estate or Home Section Less Than 250,000 Circulation. Winner: Michael Gottlieb, California Real Estate Journal. Second Place: Paul Weideman, Santa Fe New Mexican.
Category 19: Best Shelter Magazine. Winner: Gail Ravgiala, Design New England Magazine. Second Place: Jack Morris, Melissa Gillespie, Ocean Home Magazine.
Category 20: Best Residential Trade Magazine. Winner: Denise Dersin, Builder Magazine. Second Place: Kati O’Keefe, Matt Power, Green Builder Magazine.
Category 21: Best Commercial Trade Magazine. Winner: Matt Valley, Sibley Fleming, Denise Kalette and Jaun Mims, National Real Estate Investor Magazine. Second Place: Bryan Pope, Tierra Grande Magazine.
Category 22: Best Newsletter. Winner: Danielle Douglas, Distressed Assets Investor. Second Place: Daren Blomquist, Foreclosure News Report.
Category 23: Best Website Solely Devoted to Residential or Commercial Real Estate and/or Home Design. Winner: Inman News. Second Place: Jean Dimeo, Katy Tomasulo, Jennifer Goodman, Rick Schwolsky, Shelley Hutchins and Ian Blyth, EcoHome.
Category 24: Best Team Report. Winner: Jeanne Lang Jones and Kirsten Grind, Puget Sound Business Journal. Second Place: Dina EIBoghdady and Dan Keating, Washington Post.
Category 25: Best Investigative Report or Series. Winner: Michael Braga, Chris Davis and Matthew Doig, Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Second Place: Kelly Bennett and Will Carless, VoiceOfSanDiego.org.
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