By Roy Harris, past national president of ASBPE
Jenna Greene, a senior reporter for The National Law Journal, was presented with the 2012 Stephen Barr Award Wednesday night at the Azbee Awards Northeast regional banquet. The event was put on  by the New York and Boston chapters of ASBPE, a professional association for B2B writers, editors, and designers.
Greene was honored for her article “Civil Inaction”, exploring the legal quagmire that has prevented victims of radioactive contamination near Washington State’s Hanford Nuclear Reservation from receiving justice. As a result of her article, appearing in the June 20, 2011, Journal, the government and plaintiffs’ lawyers have speeded the process of settling cases. It was the ninth annual Barr award, ASBPE’s highest honor for individual reporting,
One Stephen Barr Award judge called the article “remarkable for the scope of its reporting and the profoundly distressing nature of the problems it documents, from lax operation of a dangerous plant to the failure of the court system to deliver a timely and just conclusion to the litigation that arose out of a facility that was literally poisoning its neighbors.” Added the judge: “The topic is complex, but the story is related in human terms. It is an exceptional piece of work.”
Greene joined Legal Times, a weekly, Washington, D.C.-based newspaper focusing on law and lobbying, in 1998, serving as a reporter and editor there for six years before leaving to pursue a freelance career. After Legal Times merged with The National Law Journal in 2009, she the Journal staff, covering legal developments at federal agencies. The publication is part of New York-based ALM, which also publishes The American Lawyer.
A California native, Greene has a master’s degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley, and earned her undergraduate degree at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She lives in Washington with her husband Chad and two children.
The Stephen Barr Award, now in its ninth year, is a “best in class” prize going to the journalist for a business-to-business publication whose work most reflects the qualities of inventiveness of approach, insight, balance in the presentation of a complex subject, depth of investigation, and impact among the community of readers. Those qualities were typical of the work of Stephen Barr, a senior contributing editor of CFO magazine and perennial ASBPE award-winner who died in 2002, at age 43. The award, which comes with a $500 check, is endowed by his family and administered by the ASBPE Foundation.
About the Azbee Awards of Excellence: ASBPE honored national award recipients of the 34th annual Azbee Awards of Excellence competition at a banquet in New York City on July 18 and will continue the honors in Kansas City (July 25), Chicago (July 26) and Washington, D.C. (August 3). Gold, silver, and bronze awards are given out for 50-plus categories related to print editorial, digital editorial, print design, and overall excellence. In addition to hosting the national awards, ASBPE chapters based in the aforementioned cities will also present regional award winners for the chapters’ respective territories. To find out more about the events in your area, please visit the ASBPE Web site at www.aspbe.org/events.
About ASBPE: Founded in 1964 and based in Wheaton, Ill., ASBPE (www.asbpe.org) is a professional and educational resource for editors, writers, and designers of business, trade, association, and professional publications and their associated Internet outlets. The society, formerly known as the American Society of Business Publication Editors, is widely known for its annual Azbee Awards of Excellence.