Wincott Awards 2020: chairman says foundation will broaden appeal to all generations of journalists and to new genres of story-telling

The Awards ceremony was overseen by Chairman Lionel Barber and Trustees Christopher Hird, Stephanie Flanders, and Bill Robinson.

The annual Wincott awards for the best business, economic and financial journalism took place online over Zoom because of Covid restrictions. The judging took place at a virtual meeting in March.

Lionel Barber, Wincott chairman, opened the ceremony:

I am honoured to be presiding over this, the first ever virtual awards ceremony for the annual Wincott Awards.

The bad news is that the rule of Six prevents me from being physically with you. The good news is that we had a record number of entries for Wincott 2020, with an excellent standard throughout.

Whatever the state of the British economy, business and financial journalism in this country is in good shape.

When Richard Lambert invited me to consider succeeding him as chair of the Wincott Foundation, following in the

footsteps of Geoffrey Owen, I did not hesitate to say Yes.

I share Richard and Geoff’s lifelong commitment to quality business journalism. I want to thank them both, first for hiring

me at the FT back in 1985; second for sticking with me, and third for being here tonight.

As Wincott chair, I am determined to spread the word about the value of the awards and the foundation’s work. We want to

appeal to all corners of the UK, to all generations of journalists and to new genres of story-telling.

To that end, I want to thank Kate Andrews of the Spectator, Stephanie Flanders of Bloomberg and Bernie Mensah

of Bank of America Merrill Lynch for joining Wincott as trustees this past year – and to thank Ian Hargreaves, Geoff, Richard and Rupert Pennant Rea whom they have succeeded on the board.

Wincott is also moving forward on other fronts. We have a new data journalism prize, jointly sponsored by the UK Statistical Society; a new website in the making; and we have pioneered Zoom conversations between myself and other top journalists, starting with Alan Smith, the head of data and visual journalism at the FT and

Piers Morgan, ahem, recently of Good Morning Britain.

We will be having more such events later this year as well as a keynote lecture by a distinguished speaker on

economics. That’s enough of me. Now for the main event…….

The Winners of the Wincott Awards for 2020 are:

JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR: Tim Harford (BBC, FT).

Highly commended:

Bloomberg News ‘The Essex Boys’ – Liam Vaughan, Kit Chellel and Ben Bain.

Economist team, ‘Big Tech’ – Tamzin Booth, Simon Rabinovitch, Ludwig Siegele, Matthew Valencia , Jan Piotrowski, Patrick Foulis

VIDEO JOURNALISM OF THE YEAR: Al-Jazeera English team for ‘Selling out West Papua’
Drew Ambrose – Senior Reporter/Correspondent; Jenni Henderson – Producer; Nick Olle – Supervising Producer; Liz Gooch – Senior Producer; Sharon Roobol – Executive Producer

Highly commended:

BBC Panorama team for ‘Business on the Brink’. Matt Bardo – Producer/Director and Camera; Richard Bilton – Reporter; David Howell – Film Editor; Andrew Head – Executive Producer; Rachel Jupp – Editor

AUDIO JOURNALISM OF THE YEAR: Winner: Financial Times ‘Behind the Money’. Aimee Keane – Host; Oluwakemi Aladesuyi – Producer; Breen Turner – Sound Engineer; Liam Nolan – Editor;

Highly Commended:

BBC 5 Live ‘Wake Up To Money’. Sean Farrington – Presenter; Justin Bones – Editor; Sara Wadeson – Executive Editor

DATA JOURNALISM OF THE YEAR: Ed Conway (Sky)

Highly commended:

Chris Cook (Tortoise)

FT Visual and Data Journalism Team on the Covid pandemic: Steven Bernard, John Burn-Murdoch, Tom Hannen, Bob Haslett, Caroline Nevitt, Jane Pong, Ændrew Rininsland, Alan Smith, Martin Stabe, Cale Tilford, Aleksandra Wiśniewska. Series producer Claire Manibog.

PERSONAL FINANCE JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR: Dean Sobers (Which? Money)

Highly commended:

Katie Morley (Telegraph)

YOUNG JOURNALISTS OF THE YEAR: Michael O’Dwyer (Telegraph/Sunday Telegraph – recently joined FT); Louisa Clarence-Smith (Times)

Highly commended:

Oliver Telling (Investors Chronicle)

JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR, UK NATIONS AND REGIONS: Winner: BBC Northern Ireland Spotlight ‘Brexit – The Irish Sea Border’. Reporter: John Campbell; Producers: Paddy Fee, Pippa Cooke

Highly commended:

Martyn McLaughlin (Scotsman/Scotland on Sunday)

You can watch a recording of the ceremony on our Youtube page.

Awards

Wincott Awards 2020: chairman says foundation will broaden appeal to all generations of journalists and to new genres of story-telling

The annual Wincott awards for the best business, economic and financial journalism took place online over Zoom because of Covid restrictions. The judging took place at a virtual meeting in March.

Lionel Barber, Wincott chairman, opened the ceremony:

JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR: Tim Harford (BBC, FT).

VIDEO JOURNALISM OF THE YEAR: Al-Jazeera English team for ‘Selling out West Papua’Drew Ambrose – Senior Reporter/Correspondent; Jenni Henderson – Producer; Nick Olle – Supervising Producer; Liz Gooch – Senior Producer; Sharon Roobol – Executive Producer

AUDIO JOURNALISM OF THE YEAR: Winner: Financial Times ‘Behind the Money’. Aimee Keane – Host; Oluwakemi Aladesuyi – Producer; Breen Turner – Sound Engineer; Liam Nolan – Editor;

DATA JOURNALISM OF THE YEAR: Ed Conway (Sky)

PERSONAL FINANCE JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR: Dean Sobers (Which? Money)

YOUNG JOURNALISTS OF THE YEAR: Michael O’Dwyer (Telegraph/Sunday Telegraph – recently joined FT); Louisa Clarence-Smith (Times)

JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR, UK NATIONS AND REGIONS: Winner: BBC Northern Ireland Spotlight ‘Brexit – The Irish Sea Border’. Reporter: John Campbell; Producers: Paddy Fee, Pippa Cooke

2020 winners: Tim Harford named Wincott Journalist of the Year; Lifetime Achievement Award for BBC’s In Business

Twitter reaction to 2020 Wincott Awards

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VIDEO JOURNALISM OF THE YEAR: Al-Jazeera English team for ‘Selling out West Papua’
Drew Ambrose – Senior Reporter/Correspondent; Jenni Henderson – Producer; Nick Olle – Supervising Producer; Liz Gooch – Senior Producer; Sharon Roobol – Executive Producer