John Burn-Murdoch of the Financial Times, who “used data to throw fresh light on climate change and inequality in the US and UK”, was named Journalist of the Year 2022 in the Wincott Awards for financial, economic and business journalism. Judges said John’s writing was concise, lucid and always to the point.
The Wincott awards were presented on Tuesday May 9 2023 at a lunch at Mansion House in the City of London, in the presence of Sheriff Andrew Marsden, representing the Lord Mayor of the City of London, co-host of the awards. The guest speaker was Mariana Mazzucato, Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London.
Lionel Barber, chair of the Wincott Foundation, welcomed guests and shortlisted finalists and said the judges of the awards had been impressed and encouraged by the high quality of business journalism in what was a turbulent year in economics, politics and finance. He said there had been 150 entries for the awards, 47 alone for the journalist of the year award – a sign that “business and financial journalism are in a good place.”
In a highly competitive category, Video Journalism of the Year went to BBC TV’s Panorama for The Post Office Scandal (Matt Bardo,producer/director; Tim Robinson, producer/director; Sandy Smith, executive producer; Diana Martin, deputy editor; and Karen Wightman, editor). Judges said Panorama was “the winner in a very strong field. The programme was a highly professional deep dive into one of the worst miscarriages of justice in recent years.
BBC Radio Four’s Analysis (Dharshini David, BBC Economics correspondent; Caroline Bayley, producer; and Richard Fenton-Smith, editor) won Audio Journalism of the Year with Is the UK the new sick man of Europe? Judges said the programme represented the BBC at its best – “an impressive line-up of experts and policy makers with a clear, sustained analysis reminding us how a well-made radio series can do something quite different from a podcast”.
Tom Calver of The Sunday Times was named Data Journalist of the Year for producing work that judges said was a “model of the genre – a crisp combination of data and words covering benefits, pensions and nurses’ pay”. Michael Simmons of The Spectator was highly commended in this category for his work reporting on Covid statistics and his role in creating the data hub at The Spectator.
The Martin Lewis Money Show Live from ITV was the outstanding winner in the Personal Finance Journalism of the Year. Martin elected to withdraw his personal name, but the judges decided that such was the quality of the programme that the award should go to the whole team.
The Journalist of the Year Nations and Regions was Peter Ranscombe, a freelance journalist based in Scotland. Peter took the top prize with his wide ranging reporting from Scotland. Judges were impressed by his sharp eye for detail and vivid writing. Jennifer Williams of the. Financial Times was highly commended for her reporting on how the government’s much-vaunted Levelling Up policy was faring in the north of England.
Freya Pratty of Sifted and Joshua Oliver of the FInancial Times were joint winners of the Young Journalist of the Year in a tightly contested category. Judges said Freya delivered sharp reportage on venture capital, highlighted by her in-depth analysis of the success of Northvolt and the end of BritishVolt, the UK’s foray into mass electric battery production. Josh produced ground-breaking reporting and analysis of the end of FTX, the Bahamas-based crypto currency business headed by Sam Bankman-Fried.