Flanigan Wins Hancock Award for Series of Business Columns

Los Angeles Times business columnist James Flanigan has won the John Hancock Award for Excellence in Business and Financial Journalism, it was announced Tuesday.

The John Hancock Award is one of the most prestigious in business journalism and has been granted annually for 21 years to those whose work “contributed significantly to improved understanding of business and finance.” The winners are selected by an independent panel of judges in the field of journalism. The award is sponsored by John Hancock Financial Services.

Flanigan won in the category for columnists with his series of pieces about the stock market crash, the falling dollar and Japan’s influence on the world economy.

Besides Flanigan, the other winners were: AP Business News Editor Michael Millican and a team of the Associated Press for coverage of the Oct. 19 stock market crash; a team from Time magazine, also for their coverage of the market collapse; Mark Hornung of Crain’s Chicago Business for his coverage of turmoil at Allegis Corp.; Daniel Akst of the Wall Street Journal for coverage of ZZZZ Best and its founder Barry Minkow; Guillermo X. Garcia and James Pinkerton of the Austin (Tex.) American-Statesman for coverage of Mexico’s economic struggles, and Andi Esposito of the Worcester (Mass.) Telegram for reporting on the business ties between central Massachusetts and Japan.