Xconomy’s national biotech editor, Luke Timmerman, has won a national award for column-writing from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. It’s the first national journalism award for Xconomy, which was founded in 2007 and now operates a six-city network of news sites focused on business innovation.
The award is for Luke’s weekly BioBeat column, which he started writing a year ago to give an analytical take on life sciences news and trends. Judges looked at five different columns, three from dates selected at random by the organization, to determine the winners.
There were three, unranked winners overall in the category of best column for digital media outlets with fewer than 500,000 unique visitors per month. Joining Luke in winning honors were Jesse Eisinger of ProPublica, for The Trade Columns, and a team from Reuters, for columns from Breakingviews.
“This is a much-deserved award for Luke and fantastic recognition for Xconomy as a growing young media company dedicated to great journalism,” says Bob Buderi, our CEO. “Luke’s BioBeat column has become a must read for leaders in the biotech industry and Big Pharma, as he has created a national following by providing thoughtful and insightful perspective on some of the biggest and toughest issues the industry faces. We’re extremely proud of him.”
There were more than 200 winners in nearly 90 categories in the competition, which also includes honors for newspapers, magazines, and broadcasters. There were more than 1,000 entries vying for this year’s awards.
SABEW said leading national winners included Bloomberg News and GlobalPost, which collected nine wins each, and CNNMoney.com and the Financial Times, with seven wins each.
