For the seventh consecutive year, The Press Democrat business section was named one of the nation's best by the country's largest group of financial journalists.


The Society of American Business Editors and Writers on Thursday gave its award for overall excellence to The Press Democrat and two other newspapers in the category for daily newspapers with circulation up to 125,000.

The Press Democrat also was honored for its coverage of Sutter Health's plans to close its Santa Rosa hospital. The package of stories by former Staff Writer Carol Benfell received the top award in the breaking news category.

In its 13-year history, the Best in Business contest has recognized The Press Democrat for overall excellence nine times. The newspaper won in 1996 and 1999, and the 2002 award started a streak of seven consecutive honors.

The panel of judges singled out The Press Democrat for "exceptional enterprise coverage of the housing market."

"Their reporting of the real estate debacle in their local areas was one of the best we've seen. They provided good context and explanation on why this matters," the judges noted. "You can tell they practiced good journalism -- they hit the streets, were well sourced and got the interviews done right."

The judges based their decision on six publication dates, three mandated by the contest and three selected by the newspaper's editors.

The other winners for overall excellence in the small newspaper category were the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson and the News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash.

The society's headquarters is at the Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri in Columbia.

There were 842 entries in the contest, which recognizes the best examples of business journalism in daily newspapers, business weeklies, magazines, wire services and news Web sites during 2007. The awards will be presented at the society's conference in Baltimore on April 27.