Hawaii Business Wins 19 Awards, Including 7 Top Prizes

The accolades were handed out during the Society of Professional Journalists’ annual statewide competition. Among those winning multiple awards for the magazine were Cynthia Wessendorf, Jeff Sanner and Noelle Fujii-Oride.

Left to Right: Marianne Joy Leano, Rebecca Brooking, Randall Libramonte, Ken Wills, Kalena O’Connell, Kent Coules, Cynthia Wessendorf, Steve Petranik, Jennifer Ablan

Hawaii Business Magazine took home 19 awards from the annual SPJ Hawaii competition, including the prestigious Ulupono Prize for sustainability reporting.

The awards, open to all media outlets across Hawai‘i, were based on work published, broadcast or posted in 2024. These honors are a nice addition to the seven national awards Hawaii Business won earlier this year, including the prize for best regional business magazine in the country.

The biggest winners for Hawaii Business were Cynthia Wessendorf and Jeff Sanner. Wessendorf won or shared in six SPJ awards – including four first place prizes – and Sanner won or shared in five awards, including one top prize.

Wessendorf captured the Ulupono Prize for sustainability reporting, which includes a $1,000 check, for her report in the April 2024 issue entitled, “The Heat Is Rising in Honolulu. More Trees Will Help Cool It Off.”

“The winning entry features extensive research and reporting while being presented in an easy-to-understand way,” a judge wrote. “The end section of ‘What’s Next’ is crucial. Solution-based climate reporting like this could save lives, one newly planted bus-stop tree at a time.”

Wessendorf also won first place for best body of work by a single writer, based on a series of articles published last year.

“Cynthia is clearly her newsroom’s Swiss Army knife,” a judge wrote. “She writes with confidence and authority and knows how to keep readers engaged even when the subject matter needs to veer off into the weeds. Cynthia is obviously knowledgeable about her community.”

She also won first place in health reporting for her story in the October 2024 issue headlined, “Navigating Hawai‘i’s Family-Leave Maze.” That story also won second place in the feature writing category for magazines.

“This issue affects so many people, and this reporting was well done with the potential for great impact,” a judge wrote.

Additionally, Wessendorf won the third–place award in the data journalism story or series category for her Top 250 report in the August 2024 issue that ranked Hawai‘i’s biggest companies and nonprofits.

Her final award came as part of an excellent team effort that captured first place in the special section category. That March 2024 report, “20 for the Next 20: Hawai‘i’s People to Watch,” included Mallory Adams-Nakamura, Aaron Yoshino, Ryann Noelani Coules and Chavonnie Ramos as contributors.

A judge wrote: “Excellent job in researching the leaders who are featured in this piece. The interviews make it easy to read and the photos are wonderfully shot. Great feature!”

In June, Wessendorf stepped down as managing editor of Hawaii Business to become a contributing writer for the magazine.

Five Awards for Our Creative Director

Creative Director Jeff Sanner made a big haul of awards even though he didn’t join Hawaii Business until April 2024. He created design magic with my report on the BOSS Survey in the August 2024 issue, winning first place in the informational graphic category open to all news media.

“The custom graphics in this piece make it stand out from all the entries in this category,” a judge wrote. “I was hooked when I saw the mountain climb and I wanted to keep reading for the rowboat and food. This is an incredibly enticing informational graphic – it presents the information in an engaging way.”

Sanner and I won third place in the same category for our collaboration in the September 2024 issue on another edition of the BOSS Survey and 808 Poll.

Adams-Nakamura and Ramos completed the category sweep for Hawaii Business by winning second place for their report, “Fixing Hawai‘i’s Deadly Roads.”

Sanner also took home three other awards, all in magazine design categories: a second place for best cover in recognition of his July 2024 cover on Gen Z; a third-place prize for overall design; and another third-place in the single feature layout category for “Navigating Hawai‘i’s Family-Leave Maze.”

Private Equity Report Earns Praise

Another big winner for Hawaii Business was former staff writer Noelle Fujii-Oride, who is now the editor of the nonprofit news site Overstory. She won or shared in four awards.

Fujii-Oride and contributing writer LiAnne Yu won first place in industry or trade reporting by magazines for a series of 2024 reports on tourism, Hawai‘i’s largest industry.

The centerpiece of those reports was Fujii-Oride’s article in the January 2024 issue, “Private Equity Now Owns Nearly 30% of Hawai‘i’s Hotel Rooms.” The report took four months to put together and detailed the seismic shift in ownership of the crown jewels of local tourism and the resulting impact on workers, other hotels and tourism businesses, and the overall local economy.

A judge wrote, “The writer did a great job in distilling the complexities of private equity into digestible bites for the reader and providing stellar localized examples. Strong writing, a great use of mixed sources, wonderful usage of data and I love the design elements as well as little breakout boxes with additional information.”

The private equity report also won second place for business reporting among magazines and third place for public service reporting among all media.

The judge for the public service award wrote: “Excellent explanations of what private equity is and why it matters, especially to an economy propped up by tourism dollars. Incredible use of records and explaining to readers how usually secretive and shielded information was found out.”

Fujii-Oride’s fourth award was a third place for industry or trade reporting for five reports on residential real estate in Hawai‘i. She shared the award with Shelby Mattos and Janis Magin Meierdiercks. One of the stories was Mattos’ report on “Hunting for a New Place in Renters Purgatory.”

“This compilation of writers showed they are deeply knowledgeable and sourced on the topic of housing in Hawai‘i,” a judge wrote.

Ceded Lands Report Wins Award

Contributing Writer Catharine Lo Griffin won a third-place award in the explanatory journalism category open to all media for her valuable report in the November issue entitled, “Seeking a Way Forward on Ceded Lands.”

“An amazing lesson in local history,” a judge wrote.

And in the profile category for magazines, she won another third-place award for her profile of CEO of the Year Christine Camp in the December issue.

And our 19th award was another first place and a special favorite of mine: We won for best headlines among magazines. In a world filled with too much clickbait, we aim for headlines that are sometimes clever but always thoughtful and informative without overpromising – headlines that explain why you might find the story interesting and valuable to read. ​

Of course, in such a competition, you lean on your cleverest headlines when submitting examples. The judge wrote about ours: “The collection shows the perfect balance of kitschy and news-y. Each pulls you in to read the subhead and then the first paragraph and then all the way to the end. Nice showing here.”

Yes, nice showing by everyone on the Hawaii Business team.