Dispatch reporter wins national nod
Dispatch Reporter Dan Gearino has been awarded a National Headliner Award for business reporting.
The award was announced Tuesday by the National Headliner Awards organization in Northfield, New Jersey. Founded in 1934 by the Press Club of Atlantic City, the National Headliner Awards program is one of the oldest and largest annual contests recognizing journalistic merit in the communication industry.
“We’re proud of Dan, not only because he won this prestigious award, but also because he is being honored for what he does every day,” said Dispatch Editor Alan D. Miller. “The award honors the good work of a reporter who, like all Dispatch reporters, seeks to keep Dispatch readers informed about what’s happening in their community.”
“This shows that it doesn’t take a three-part investigative series or an in-depth report rooted in a massive database to win recognition for the kind of good journalism we deliver every day,” Miller said.
Gearino joined the Dispatch Business news staff in 2008, primarily covering the energy, manufacturing and automotive industries.
His entry included ongoing coverage of “submeter” companies’ fight to continue their practice of unregulated utility markups charged to apartment and condominium residents. (In 2016, The Dispatch reported on the behindthe-scenes action to kill
legislation in the Ohio General Assembly that would have regulated the companies. The newspaper kept the spotlight on the issue at a time when consumers finally were able to chalk up a few wins, such as the utility regulators’ ruling in December that they have the authority to oversee submetering.)
Also in the entry was coverage of the shutdown of Columbus Castings, a century-old foundry (once owned by President George H.W. Bush’s grandfather) and a major employer that abruptly closed. The factory’s demise had twists and turns as a prospective new owner narrowly lost in bidding in bankruptcy court, ending hopes for a comeback. The Dispatch stayed ahead of the story, providing workers and neighbors with what they needed to know amid dizzying developments.
“Dan Gearino’s reporting on how utilities in Ohio had usually come up the winner vs. consumers was concise, in depth, and led to changes in how they dealt with the public,” according to comments from judges of the contest. “Consumers got a big benefit from Gearino’s reporting.”
The business category is open to news organizations of all sizes, providing competition from biggest news organizations. Last year, The Associated Press won in this category. The year before, it was Bloomberg News. And in 2014 and 2013, respectively, the winners were the Tampa Bay Times and The Wall Street Journal.
A graduate of Macalester College, Gearino previously worked for Lee Enterprises, covering politics and state government in his native Iowa, and The Keene Sentinel in New Hampshire, where his beats included education, business and politics.
Gearino’s previous recognition includes multiple best-businesswriter awards from Ohio Associated Press Media editors and the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists.
In 2014, he was part of the Dispatch Business news staff that received a national generalexcellence award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers for the content of its daily section, and he had a previous award from the organization for explanatory reporting.