The Society of American Business Editors and Writers announced today that its Best In Business journalism contest is ready for its ninth year with a new Projects portion designed to acknowledge outstanding investigative reporting or comprehensive and exhaustive work on an important issue.

SABEW's Best In Business Contest annually honors the finest business and financial coverage in North America including overall excellence by a newspaper and outstanding news coverage by a business news journalist or a team.

Entries for the ninth Best In Business Contest are now being accepted for work published in 2002. Deadline is Tuesday, February 11, 2003. Details are available at the society's Web site at http://www.sabew.org/.

The new Projects part of the Best In Business News Contest is designed to acknowledge outstanding work that features investigative reporting or comprehensive and exhaustive work on an important issue.

"With all of the attention on corporate hanky panky, the committee thought this would be an excellent year to introduce this category," said The Associated Press' Randy Picht, chairperson of the SABEW Best In Business Contest.

"The Projects category should make it easier for business editors to enter stories or story packages that are not tied to a deadline. The two existing categories -- breaking news and spot enterprise -- are linked to time- sensitive reporting."

The News Contest also honors the best Breaking News coverage as well as the best Spot Enterprise story. The Best In Business Section Contest finds the top overall work by print news outlets in their circulation categories.

SABEW figures show that Best In Business is on a growth spurt. Last year, the contest drew 564 entries vs. 492 for the previous contest.

For 2001, The Boston Globe won Best Section honors for the fourth straight year, the San Jose Mercury News won for the third year in a row, and USA Today, the Portland Oregonian, Las Vegas Sun and Cincinnati Business Courier were repeat winners.

The Washington Post last year became the first newspaper to win an award in three categories in the same year. Bloomberg News won two awards for spot enterprise and extended its streak of winning at least one news contest award each year for the past five years. Judges also handed out the first-ever "Extraordinary Achievement" to The Wall Street Journal for its outstanding coverage of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The Society of American Business Editors and Writers Inc., headquartered at the Missouri School of Journalism, is an association of more than 3,000 business journalists in North America.

SABEW was formed 40 years ago to promote superior coverage of business and economic events and issues. The society celebrates its 40th anniversary at its annual conference in Boston on April 27-29, 2003. Best In Business Contest winners will be honored at the conference.

SOURCE: Society of American Business Editors and Writers, Inc.