NBR senior journalists Tim Hunter and Dita de Boni have picked up major prizes at the 2022 New Zealand Shareholders’ Association journalism awards, with Hunter also named the overall Business Journalist of the Year.
It is the second successive year NBR has won the overall award, with senior journalist Maria Slade winning last year. Hunter also won the top gong in 2019.
The three judges, Gyles Beckford, Louise Nicholson and Jenni McManus, said Hunter submitted a number of strong entries across the categories.
“He was a finalist and winner in two of them and his other entries were also of a very high quality.”
Hunter was the joint winner of the features category for his probe into the overseas backers of a NZ building guarantee, ‘A trail of guaranteed disaster’. He shared that category with BusinessDesk’s Murray Jones.
He was also a finalist in the commentary section for his Hunter’s Corner, 'A conflict of interest at the FMA'.
NBR senior journalist Dita de Boni.
De Boni, meanwhile, won the commentary category for her Flip Side column on the aged care sector.
The judges said the article “provided relevance for investors, given the scale of the retirement and aged care sector in New Zealand, and provided evidence of a cautionary tale that could be expanded to an impact on New Zealand”.
Overall, NBR had the most finalists at the awards, also including: co-editor Hamish McNicol in the news category for his story about DGL founder Simon Henry’s remarks on My Food Bag and Nadia Lim; Slade in news for her story on the owners of ‘worthless’ apartments taking action against lawyers; and journalist Kate McVicar in the features category for her investigation into Orba Shoes.
McVicar was also commended by the judges as a strong contender for the Emerging Journalist of the Year award, which was won by BusinessDesk’s Riley Kennedy.
BusinessDesk’s Oliver Lewis won the news category at the awards.
NZ Shareholders’ Association chief executive Oliver Mander said business journalism had witnessed a rebirth over the last few years.
“While the overall number of entries was similar to last year, some media organisations, including Stuff, were not represented.”
“NZSA does not believe that business journalism is something that should be contained to a rarefied few – all involved in the industry, including NZSA, need to work harder to improve awareness and engagement in investment topics that are relevant to millions of Kiwis.”
